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Albuquerque Service Unit

picture of Albuquerque Indian hospital The Albuquerque Service Unit consists of the Albuquerque Indian hospital (28 beds) and attached ambulatory care center, health care centers at Isleta, Jemez, and Alamo communities and field health clinics in Zia, Santa Ana, and Sandia and at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute. The Alamo Chapter of the Navajo Nation has assumed full control of all operations of the Alamo Navajo Health Center under Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination Act.

The Albuquerque Hospital provide general inpatient care, with intensive care, surgery, and obstetric services contracted to the adjoining University of New Mexico Hospital and several private hospitals. Albuquerque has long been a center for education and employment for southwest Native Americans, which has contributed to the diversity of its Tribal representation. The Albuquerque ambulatory care center is an IHS-wide model for management in outpatient care, with 97,000 visits per year. All support services are available at the center, with separate units organized for urgent care and appointment patients.

40% of all out-patient visits occur outside of Albuquerque, where the health care teams take a site-specific community-oriented approach to address major public health problems. These programs emphasize comprehensive continuing care, health promotion, and disease prevention.


Health Care Team
Clinical Psychologists
Dental Hygienists
Dentists
Dieticians
Health Educators
Laboratory Technologists
Mental Health Technicians
Medical Imaging Technologists
Medical Officers
Medical Records Staff
Nurses
Nutritionists
Optometrists
Pharmacists
Physician's Assistants
Public Health Nurses
Radiologist
Social Workers

Clinics

Alamo
Isleta
Jemez
Sandia
Santa Ana
Zia

Within the Albuquerque Service unit there are currently 32,000 registered users from 202 different tribes, in which the Navajo, including the Area's Alamo Chapter, represent the largest tribal group. The second largest group is comprised picture of Hogono in Alamo of the populations of the five Pueblos incorporated into the Albuquerque Area Service Unit: Sandia, Santa Ana, Zia, Jemez, and Isleta. The Pueblo Tribes first moved into this area of the Southwest in the early 1100s, settling into scattered villages along streams and rivers. These ancestors of the present tribes began moving into compact pueblos, usually of one to two stories, two centuries later. Each has always been a complete entity, a self-contained community. The Alamo Chapter of the Navajo Nation descends from the originally nomadic Apache de Navajo. Whereas the Pueblo tribes have always organized around the concept of the community, to the Navajo people the individual is primary. Curing ceremonials are an important part of the traditions of both groups. The Alamo Chapter of the Navajo Nation has assumed full control of all operations of the Alamo Navajo Health Center under Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination Act.

picture of Jemez river Geographically, the Sandia Pueblo is at the base of the Sandias just outside of Albuquerque. Traveling northwest, Santa Ana is 8 miles from Bernalillo, close to Coronado State Monument and Zia is 8 miles north of that on the Jemez River. Jemez, one of the largest pueblos, is at the mouth of the canyon formed by that river. Isleta Pueblo is south of Albuquerque with rich lands fed by the Bosque River and slopes east to the Manzano Mountains. Further south, the Alamo Navajo reservation ranges from the northern plains through mesa and valley terrain to the forested Gallina Mountains.

Albuquerque is a friendly, sprawling southwestern city of almost a half million people, where the very old and the very new co-exist quite comfortably. All major land and air routes intersect there and a number of national business concerns reside in Albuquerque, yet it has avoided a large city feeling and many urban problems while still supporting growth.

Many of the industries represented are high-technology oriented; Sandia National Lab and Kirtland Air Force Base are major employers. At the other extreme, Old Town has been standing since 1706, its central plaza built to the plan of early Spanish towns.

It's now a center for unique and picturesque restaurants and shops, a favorite of locals and visitors alike. intersected by the Rio Grande and bordered by the majestic Sandia and Manzano Mountain ranges, Albuquerque sits on a desert plateau with an average elevation of 5000' and generous water table.


Contact Information
Albuquerque Service Unit
801 Vassar Drive, N.E.
Albuquerque, N.M. 87106
Phone: 505 248 4000 (for info)
FAX: 505 248 4088

This file last modified: Friday January 26, 2007  2:14 PM