Valencia County gains certification to transport patients to hospitals

Valencia County fire crews can now transport emergency patients to a hospital by ambulance and bill for the service after receiving a certificate of necessity from the New Mexico Department of Transportation on May 6, 2026. Fire Chief Matt Propp said the county had spent about five years “shotgunning” transports, but the new certification makes the department a fully certified ambulance provider.

For families in Los Lunas, Belen, Bosque Farms, Peralta and Rio Communities, the biggest question is practical: whether the county can move patients faster, keep more ambulances in the field and cut the wait for a ride to definitive care. Propp said the county wants to reduce the scramble that has pulled fire units away from their home areas, especially when AMR takes patients from Valencia County to Albuquerque. Earlier in the process, he said the county was trying to move toward a triage-based model so fire crews could stay available for the next call instead of sitting at a hospital with a transported patient.

The certification also changes the money flow. The county can now recover some ambulance transport costs, something it could not do before, which could ease pressure on a department Propp said was being “killing” by operating expenses. That does not erase the larger policy question: whether local transport will reduce delays and dependence on outside providers, or simply shift more of the cost burden into a billing system that patients and county taxpayers will still feel in different ways.

Valencia County EMS already operates at the Advanced Life Support level under the medical direction of Dr. Whitney Barrett from the UNM EMS Consortium. The department says its fleet includes three Type 1 rescues, one Type 2 and two Type 3 rescues, along with Lifepack cardiac monitors and Zoll Autopulse CPR devices. To qualify for the certification, the county’s EMS fleet and personnel had to meet state requirements, including physicals and verification of background and driving records.

The timing matters because Valencia County is also building its own hospital at the northeast corner of New Mexico State Road 6 and Sandsage Street in Los Lunas. The planned facility is a 15-bed hospital of about 35,100 to 40,000 square feet, and county officials said in March that the building was fully enclosed and on track for completion by August 2026. Community Hospital Corporation and Lovelace Health System said the site was chosen for population growth, access to I-25 and room to expand.

Taken together, the hospital project and the new transport certification mark a major shift in Valencia County’s emergency-care system. The county now has more authority to move patients, bill for the ride and keep ambulances closer to home as the local hospital comes online.