Bernalillo County names first chief medical officer to boost public health

Bernalillo County has put a doctor in charge of its public health strategy for the first time, a move that could ripple into jail care, behavioral health and hospital coordination for Sandoval County residents who depend on the same regional system. Dr. Rebecca K. Fastle, MD, CCHP, was named the county’s first chief medical officer on June 4, 2026, giving Bernalillo County a single medical lead as it tries to strengthen services tied to the Metropolitan Detention Center and broader community health needs.

The county said Fastle brings more than two decades of clinical experience. She previously worked at University of New Mexico Hospital as associate chief medical officer for special projects and served as project lead for clinical operations at MDC, experience that places her at the center of one of the most watched parts of the county’s health network.

The appointment matters because MDC care has already been reorganized around UNM Hospital. On July 26, 2023, the hospital became the medical, dental and behavioral health provider for people held at the Metropolitan Detention Center. That shift followed the county’s decision to end its contract with YesCare and Corizon Health effective July 25, 2023. Bernalillo County and the MDC Health Care Authority negotiated a four-year deal worth $20.2 million per year, and the agreement raised full-time medical staff at the jail from 106 to 123.

County officials linked the partnership to efforts to reach substantial compliance with the McClendon jail-civil-rights settlement and related court orders. They also said the change was intended to help address fentanyl-related detox needs and a wider community health crisis tied to people arrested at MDC. With an average jail population of about 1,500 people, the facility’s medical failures can spill beyond the jail walls and into emergency rooms and inpatient beds used across central New Mexico.

Fastle’s role gives Bernalillo County a new point of control over decisions that reach into behavioral health, infectious disease response, jail medicine and care for people cycling through homelessness and detention. County Manager Julie Morgas Baca has backed the expanded partnership with UNM Hospital, and UNM Hospital CEO Kate Becker has described correctional health care as especially difficult while saying the hospital remains committed to improvement. For Sandoval County, the real question is whether that leadership change improves the regional handoffs that move patients, detainees and crisis cases through shared hospitals and emergency systems, or leaves those pressures unchanged.