By Mary Alice Murphy

In a brief open session at the May 14, 2025 special meeting of the Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees, Chairman Dr. Fred Fox explained that although the members had thought all the details of the renewal of the contract for Chief Executive Officer Robert Whitaker had been finalized and ready for approval, they had learned that some details were still being worked out between Whitaker and the lawyers.

The contract was tabled to be discussed in executive session.

Fox during his comments said that he and the administration had met with representatives from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine to discuss collaboration to bring back the family physician residency program to Grant County.

"Studies show that rural community residency graduates are more likely to stay in the state and in the non-urban areas," Fox said. "Other results show that they attract more primary care providers to the communities. We've been working, along with Hidalgo Medical Services, which housed the first residency program, to bring the program back."

He noted that when an area does not have enough primary physicians, community members have to travel to other places for their health care and then the accessory services, like X-rays and tests also stay in those other places. "So having the residency program here would also benefit this hospital."

Fox said the collaboration is not yet set in stone, but talks continue.The family residency program that used to be in Silver City was the type called 1-2, meaning the first year residents served in a city, such as Las Cruces, and then served their last two years in Grant County.

A different structure is under consideration at this time, but no decision has been made. The rural training program would place the residents in Grant County for their full residency. In addition, UNM would provide the administration for the program, thereby not requiring an additional administration in the county.

"The local physicians would still be the mentors for the residents" Fox said. "But the UNM staff would be supporting the rural program. UNM is also talking about expanding the residency for other practitioners, not just physicians."

He said that GRMC is working with HMS, and also with Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces. "The structure of the program would utilize the present residency administration at UNM, without needing administrators here."

Fox also noted that henceforth the board would be meeting twice a month, with the first session being similar to a work session to discuss what the members would approve at the regular meeting the fourth Wednesday of each month, in hopes to keep the regular meeting much shorter.

The board members went into executive session, without any plan for action after the closed session.