Valencia County seeks residents for new hospital board of trustees seat

Valencia County is looking for a resident to help govern the new county hospital before most patients ever walk through its doors. The Board of County Commissioners will accept letters of interest from local people who want to be considered for one of the county’s three nominees to Brazos Health Partners, with one nominee ultimately chosen to serve on the seven-member board of trustees.

Trustees will help shape the hospital’s vision, mission and values, review operating and capital budgets, weigh facility planning, support physician recruitment, monitor quality and performance, foster community relations and grant medical staff privileges. Applicants must be non-physician members of the local community and cannot be county commissioners.

The application deadline is 5 p.m. on July 17. Officials expect to review applications in a public meeting before forwarding at least three nominees to Brazos Health Partners, the company selected to operate the hospital under the county’s agreement. Brazos Health Partners is a joint venture between Community Healthcare Corporation and Lovelace Health System.

The opening comes after years of public financing and planning for the hospital. Voters approved a hospital tax question in late 2006 by 14,245 votes to 4,438, authorizing a 2.75 mills ad valorem tax for eight years to fund a hospital and 24-hour emergency healthcare facility. The county later approved a healthcare facilities contract with Brazos Health Partners on April 24, 2024.

The hospital itself is taking shape at the northeast corner of N.M. 6 and Sandsage in the Village of Los Lunas, west of Interstate 25. The facility is planned as a 15-bed, 40,000-square-foot building, with future plans for an 18,750-square-foot addition and a 24,500-square-foot medical office building. In March 2026, county commissioners touring the site saw the building fully enclosed, interior finish work had begun and a helipad was being built, with completion expected by late summer or by the end of 2026.

The hospital’s name has changed as the project advanced. The county first adopted “Valencia County Hospital, a Lovelace Operation” in March 2025, then revised it in July 2025 to “Valencia County Hospital, A Lovelace Health System Affiliate” after Lovelace said the original wording did not match branding protocols. Tammie Hulett was identified in March as the hospital’s chief executive officer, while Lovelace president and CEO Cliff Wilson expressed that the company was looking forward to expanding care for Valencia County.