Gila Regional expands Lordsburg clinic, adds room for more specialties

Gila Regional Medical Center is leasing more space in the Lordsburg complex it already shares with Hidalgo Medical Services, a move that should open the door to more specialty visits by August. The county-owned hospital’s board of trustees approved the lease in a special meeting last Wednesday.

The extra room is expected to give the outreach clinic more capacity for the services already taking root there: cardiology visits, general surgery consultations, orthopedics, urology and podiatry. Gila Regional CEO Robert Whitaker said the added space will help the hospital expand those services and make it easier for residents to get more care closer to home instead of driving out of county.

For Hidalgo County families, that is the practical measure that matters. HMS said its expanded partnership with Gila Regional builds on an initiative launched in 2023, when HMS CEO Dan Otero invited the Silver City hospital to provide specialty care in Hidalgo County. HMS said the cardiology visits that began in 2023 became the foundation for the wider rollout.

The clinic’s location at HMS Lordsburg Main Clinic, 530 De Moss Street, keeps the new care in the same part of town where patients already go for other health services. Gila Regional’s general-surgery page lists Dr. James Rosser, Dr. Laurence Gibson and Dr. Frederick Wendler as surgeons patients may consult with there.

The expansion lands in a county where distance has long shaped access. Lordsburg is one of New Mexico’s six Frontier Communities, and residents often travel to Deming or Silver City, an hour or more away, for healthcare services. That reality has made even routine follow-up appointments a burden for working families, older patients and anyone without reliable transportation.

The newest specialty footprint has already been taking shape. In March, the orthopedics satellite clinic in Lordsburg had a first date of March 25, and Gila Regional added orthopedics, podiatry, urology and general surgery to the preexisting cardiology clinic there. With the lease now approved, the next test will be whether those services translate into shorter waits, more appointment slots and fewer long drives for patients who have spent years leaving the county for care.