Nor-Lea Hospital District is committed to upgrading its services, operations and facilities at all of its locations to better serve the folks of Lea County. Right now the organization is planning the expansion of its Medical Clinic and Outreach Laboratory in Hobbs.
According to its Facebook page, the Nor-Lea Hospital District in partnership with Lea County will soon break ground on an expansion to the Hobbs Medical Clinic. Projected completion date for the project is Spring 2022.
The conclusion drawn from a recent community needs assessment is that Lea County suffers from a deficiency in primary care and pediatric medicine. Nor-Lea’s upcoming project will help to provide better facilities, more staff and better services to address these deficiencies. Additionally, the project will improve family practice and internal medicine services and will provide a new immunization center.
Nor-Lea Hospital District CEO/Administrator David Shaw comments in his 2020-21 annual report, that even with the pandemic in 2020, “Nor-Lea was busy continuing to grow services and improve operations.” This factor remains true in 2021. “We have plans in 2021 to further expand our specialty service offerings and look forward to working cooperatively with Covenant Health Hobbs to expand our ranges of services to all Lea County residents,” Shaw says.
The new expansion to the Hobbs Medical Clinic adds one more project to the list of those recently undertaken by Nor-Lea, making 2020 and 2021 flow together as years of progress. The 2020 renovation to the imaging suite and addition of state-of-the-art art imagining technology are very worthwhile additions to medical services offered, and the introduction of the Pneumatic Tube system helps “… the efficiency of our operations especially in the ER, pharmacy and lab,” states Shaw. To better fight COVID, as well as other high-risk diseases, one more isolation room has also been added.
“Customer service, safety and continuity of care between services” are high on Shaw’s list of necessary upgrades. Consequently, the conversion to a patient portal called MyChart has been made. Clients are now able to make appointments, review results and pay bills using MyChart. “Little did we know that the scheduled date of the conversion would be in the middle of a pandemic. However, the team did a fantastic job overcoming the challenges of the conversion,” says Shaw.
In addition to the upcoming Nor-Lea project, Covenant Health, which has served eastern New Mexico and West Texas for over 100 years, is also expanding facilities in Lea County. Currently Covenant is building a “smart sized hospital” in Hobbs.
According to Covenant Health’s regional chief executive Richard Parks,“access to care” is necessary to have a healthy community. Shaw agrees. “I think what’s really important is to recognize that our vision is to enhance lives,” he says. “Part of that responsibility is collaborating with others in and outside our community to meet the needs of our residents.”
