Welcome from the CEO
I am pleased to welcome you to Holy Cross Hospital, where we have spent 75 years providing high-quality, compassionate health care to the greater Taos community. We work hard to ensure that we have the most excellent practitioners and up-to-date equipment for the health and comfort of our patients and visitors. Our hospital is home to 80 physicians, covering a variety of ever-expanding specialties that include internal medicine, cardiology, ob/gyn, orthopedics, general surgery, urology and a fully-staffed emergency department.
On behalf of our over-460 employees, I am pleased to welcome you to the brand-new Holy Cross Hospital website and look forward to serving you.
~Peter Hofstetter, Holy Cross Hospital CEO
Board of Directors
Mission/Vision/History
Mission
Holy Cross Hospital’s mission is to be the regional health care provider of choice, where great care comes together.
Vision
Our vision is to provide high-quality service in a safe environment.
Operating Principles
The principles which will guide us in performing our mission and accomplishing our vision are constancy of compassion, trust, courtesy, respect and continuous acquisition of knowledge in an atmosphere of responsibility, accountability and confidentiality.
Every plan, decision, and action shall be guided by these values and operating principles:
- Service excellence to our customers comes first.
- Patient safety and continuous quality improvement are the basis of our Life Wings culture
- Education must be encouraged, supported, and made available if we are to fulfill our dreams and reach our potential. Being both teacher and learner, Holy Cross Hospital will support training opportunities with other health care partners.
- Teamwork is the basis of our organizational structure to develop workforce excellence.
- Integrity shall never be compromised.
- Respect is the foundation for all our relationships.
- Caring for and partnering with our community is our primary purpose.
- As we subscribe to these values, we shall be Professionals in the Profession of Caring.
History
In 1936 the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. It was the year after the Town of Taos was incorporated, and the it was the year that Mabel Dodge Lujan donated a house to the Town of Taos to be used as the Taos community hospital. The house donated by Mabel Dodge Lujan was run by The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, and functioned as Taos’ hospital for nearly twenty-five years. This original, ten-bed hospital included an operating room, obstetrics, x-ray and nursery units, and included both a men’s and women’s ward.
From its earliest days, Holy Cross Hospital has incorporated the rich history and culture of the Taos community into its practice of care provision. The Hospital was a haven for sick and injured, treating native Taoseños and newcomers alike and combining old traditions with new and innovative treatments.
The Hospital expanded in 1960, increasing the number of beds to 28. For the next thirty years the Hospital had a succession of owners. In 1991, voters in Taos County overwhelmingly passed a ½-percent county-wide gross receipts tax to finance construction of a totally new medical complex. Today, Holy Cross Hospital is an 89,000 square-foot, not-for-profit, 47-bed community hospital, with a local governing board that includes both physicians and community members.
From Doctor Ashley Pond’s diagnosis of the first case of plague in New Mexico in 1949 through the 2009 introduction of a full-field digital mammography machine, Holy Cross has always been proud to be at the cutting edge of innovative care provision.
Map and Directions
From Española, and points south:
Follow NM-68 North into Taos (in Taos, this road is called Paseo del Pueblo Sur). Make a right onto Paseo del Cañon East/NM585. Proceed to the second rotary and exit onto Weimer Road. The hospital will be on your left-hand side.
From Questa, and points north:
Follow NM-522 South and continue straight onto NM-64E/Paseo del Pueblo Norte. Continue straight as the road becomes Paseo del Pueblo Sur. Turn left onto Paseo del Cañon East. Proceed to the second rotary and exit onto Weimer Road. The hospital will be on your left-hand side.
From Angel Fire, and points east:
Follow US-64 West toward Taos. Turn left onto NM-585W/Paseo del Cañon East. Proceed to the second rotary and exit onto Weimer Road. The hospital will be on your left-hand side.
Quality and Patient Satisfaction
What Are Core Measures?
Core measures are a method of tracking and measuring a variety of evidence-based, scientifically-researched standards of care in medicine which have been shown to result in improved clinical outcomes for patients. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS, the federal agency that administers the Medicare program and monitors the Medicaid programs offered by each state) established the core quality measures in 2000, and began publicly reporting hospital data relating to core measures in 2003.
How Do Core Measures Help?
These measures provide a national, evidence-based standard of care. Much time and effort has gone into researching and studying patient care, to determine which practices produce the best outcomes for patients. At Holy Cross Hospital, physicians and hospital staff have collaborated in developing core measure policies, guidelines, and protocols; using the CMS measures as a guide, we can determine where we are already succeeding, and where we must focus our efforts to continue providing the best possible care to our patients.
Patient Satisfaction
Your feedback is very important to us. It helps us monitor how we are doing, and the federal government monitors us as well. Our patient surveys are charted nationally and compared with other hospitals nationally to give an idea of how we compare. By sharing your thoughts, you can help us make our care better in the future – and we have the opportunity to recognize staff who may have gone above and beyond during your care. The link below allows you to compare Holy Cross Hospital patient satisfaction scores to other regional and national hospitals.
Compare Holy Cross Hospital Patient Satisfaction to Other Hospitals
Auxiliary
The mission of the Holy Cross Hospital Auxiliary is to render service to the Hospital and the community through supportive involvement with patients, staff and visitors.
Hospital volunteers handle a variety of responsibilities at the hospital, including staffing the day surgery desk and the information desk; operating the wonderful gift shop; managing the registration of over 600 health fair participants ; and hosting the eagerly-anticipated Valentine’s Day Tea and Holiday Bake Sale for all the Hospital employees.
Money raised in the Gift Shop enables the Auxiliary to help purchase the latest medical equipment to help the hospital continue providing the finest care possible. Scholarships are awarded each year for deserving high school graduates pursuing careers in health care fields.
Auxiliary members also simply enjoy being together! We invite everyone, women and men, to be a part of Holy Cross Auxiliary. Teenagers over the age of 14 are welcome to participate in the Volunteens Program.
Gift Shop
The Gift Shop, managed by the hospital Auxiliary, is located in the main lobby area across from the Enchanted Cup.
Hours:
Monday through Friday
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Saturday
10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The Gift Shop is closed on Sunday.
Patient Advocates
Friendly Visitors to Advocate for Emergency Room Patients
Emergency rooms are busy, noisy and uncomfortable, the visit is often a time of crisis and patients can become overwhelmed. Holy Cross Hospital is doing something to help patients during this stressful and uncomfortable time to ease their stress and comfort them.
“We began our patient advocate program in February 2013,” says Denise Frank, LCSW-CO, LMSW-NM, Social Worker for Holy Cross Hospital’s Care Coordination Services. “The advocates are volunteers who have gone through an orientation and 16 hours of training. They will continue to go through monthly training sessions. Their job is to comfort patients and help them understand what is happening while they are in the ER, so people know they are not forgotten.”
“We have a total of 20 volunteers, three are retired doctors and at least four are nurses and/or retired teachers,” says Loretta Ortiz y Pino, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Holy Cross Hospital. “The advocates are there for the patient, to help them feel more comfortable. They talk to patients, advocate for them, act as a liaison between the medical staff and family, and make phone calls and arrangements.”
Patients seen in an emergency room often have tests or procedures performed to find the appropriate diagnosis and treatment. What patients may not realize is that after the test is performed and they are back in their exam room, they must wait for their test results to come back. The test or procedure process can be cumbersome.
When the emergency room is full of patients and the staff is very busy, this process can take even more time. The Patient Advocates are friendly visitors that can help the flow by working with the medical staff to assist the situation.
The advocates are in the emergency room 7 days a week between 4-9 pm. They can make the experience a positive outcome. At this point of a patient’s experience communication and education are important. Patients need to understand the tests and procedures the physician is ordering. They need to be aware of the time it will take for these tests and procedures to be completed. They also need to be educated on the rational for these tests and procedures.
“We are not medical staff, but we work with the medical staff to assist them,” says Jack Rebholtz, Volunteer Patient Advocate. “It’s a great program. The feedback I’ve gotten from patients and their families has been very positive. Whatever we can do, even if it seems small it can be really significant.”
“Anyone who has ever been to the emergency room knows it is not a fun experience,” says Avis Vermilye, Volunteer Patient Advocate. “The highlight has been doing the simplest things, such as sitting with the patient. There has been such gratitude.”
The Patient Advocate program is part of Holy Cross Hospital’s Auxiliary volunteer program. Hospital volunteers handle a variety of responsibilities at the hospital, including staffing the day surgery and information desks, operating the wonderful gift shop, hosting the eagerly-anticipated Valentine’s Day Tea and the Holiday Bake Sale for all the Hospital employees.
If you are interested in becoming an Auxiliary volunteer call 575-751-5728 or stop by The Gift Shop.
