Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is a general hospital, owned and operated by the

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Otero County Hospital Association, that serves the Alamogordo, New Mexico area. It is the first military/civilian shared hospital facility in the United States. GCRMC is accredited by the

Det Norske Veritas DNV (formerly DNV GL) is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. The company currently has about 12,000 employees and 350 offices operating in more than 100 countries, and provides ser ...

. It opened in 1949, and in 2008 it was the largest non-governmental employer in Alamogordo, with 650 employees.

Services

Shared military and civilian facility

With the opening of its new facility in 1999, GCRMC became the first hospital in the United States shared by active-duty military personnel and civilians. Air Force physicians from

Holloman Air Force Base Holloman Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base established in 1942 located six miles (10 km) southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo, and a census-designated place in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. Th ...

are credentialed at the hospital to admit and treat

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

beneficiaries. The Air Force contributed $7 million for equipment for the new hospital in 1998 and DoD patients will get substantial discounts at the hospital for 15 years, with a guaranteed recovery of $7 million within the first seven years.

Medical services

The hospital is a Level III

trauma center A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergen ...

. It has 99 beds on a campus and facilities for

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...

, CAT scan, dialysis, and

sleep disorder A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of an individual's sleep patterns. Some sleep disorders are severe enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional functioning. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests ...

studies, and has a medical laboratory on site. A Southwest Med Evac

air ambulance Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

helicopter, stationed full-time at the hospital, is used to transport patients from the mountain areas to GCRMC, and to transport patients from GCRMC to hospitals in

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, Las Cruces, and

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Catering

The hospital's food and nutrition services department operates a catering service, Mountain View Catering, that caters both on-site and off-site events and provides food service at the nearby

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's ...

Alamogordo campus. It has been so successful that 60% of the department's revenue comes from outside the hospital.

History

Founding and early years

The Otero County Hospital Association was formed in 1946 to build a basic county hospital. Gerald Champion Memorial Hospital was built at the corner of Tenth Street and Cuba Avenue in Alamogordo and was dedicated on Sunday, July 31, 1949 and officially opened for business on Tuesday, August 2, with 24 beds. A number of additions and renovations were made to the facility over the years. The hospital is named after Gerald D. Champion, a local businessman and civic leader who was chairman of the Otero County Hospital Association during the fund drive for the first building. Champion died in a private airplane crash on February 3, 1948, during the fund drive. In addition to chairing the fund drive, Champion was mayor of Tularosa, operated hardware and building supply stores in Alamogordo and in Tularosa, was chairman of the Central Committee of the state Republican Party, and was active in many civic groups.

Transition to regional medical center

The hospital moved to a new building on Scenic Drive near the

Alamogordo campus in 1999, and changed its name to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center. The original building remained vacant for several years and when no use could be found for it was torn down in 2003. The new building was constructed at at a construction cost of $25,841,000. It won ''

Building Design & Construction A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fun ...

'' magazine's Grand Award: Institutional in 2000. The program manager was American Health Facilities Development (a subsidiary of Quorum Health Resources), the architects were Collins Reisenbichler Architects (since merged with Perkins and Will), and the general contractor was Robins & Morton. GCRMC celebrated its 60th anniversary on August 22, 2009 with the opening of a renovated entryway and a new obstetrics unit.