SAMHSA and Help.org give Department of Health facility high praise

SANTA FE – Turquoise Lodge Hospital (TLH) recently received two notable recognitions. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) honored TLH as one of the top providers of addiction treatment in the Albuquerque and wider New Mexico area. SAMHS Autilized five core metrics in assessing programs throughout the state which included rehabilitation services provided, treatment approaches, cost, special programming, and ancillary service availability. In turn, Help.org named TLH “Best Rehab Facility in Albuquerque in 2020.”

The facility’s high ranking encompasses an ongoing commitment to excellence for years, and the implementation of evidence-based practices throughout a continuum of care.

Turquoise Lodge Hospital has been providing adults substance abuse services to New Mexicans for close to 70 years. Since inception, Turquoise Lodge Hospital has provided inpatient medical detoxification and social rehabilitation services. While the treatment center is available to all New Mexicans, Turquoise Lodge Hospital prioritizes women who are pregnant, IV drug users, and men and women who are at risk of losing custody of their children due to their substance misuse.  

The hospital specializes in detoxification of complex patients using multiple substances, patients who have underlying medical problems and the initiation or maintenance of medication assisted treatment, visit https://ativanonlinetabs.com. Over the past 5 years, the facility has expanded outpatient treatment to provide a continuity of care of patients in recognition that an episodic inpatient intervention is just the beginning of a recovery journey. 

“Programming is trauma informed, patient-centered and individualized to address the complexity of issues with which substance use disorder patients struggle," said Shauna Hartley, Turquoise Lodge Hospital Director.

In early 2019, Turquoise Lodge Hospital hired Dr. Patricia Pade, a Board-certified Addiction Medicine Specialist with over 25 years of experience in the field.  She founded one of the country’s first Addiction Medicine Fellowships at the University of Colorado in 2014. In 2012, she led a team at the VA Hospital in Albuquerque who won the SAMHSA Science and Service Award for the use of Buprenorphine to treat co-occurring pain and addiction in a primary care setting.   

In this past year, the hospital has taken many operational steps to enhance quality of care at Turquoise Lodge Hospital. These include becoming a Tobacco-Free facility, incorporating smoking cessation programming, ensuring medication assisted therapy is initiated or continued all patients who meet diagnostic criteria for such treatment, providing additional Intensive Outpatient Programming tracts, beginning an outpatient Addiction Medicine Clinic, relocating to Gibson Medical Center, and becoming Joint Commission accredited.

All staff, nearly 80 employees, have decades of experience in the treatment of substance use disorders. The Turquoise Lodge team includes medical, nursing, counseling, psychology, administrative and peer support personnel who contribute to all levels of patient care—and are dedicated to incorporating innovative and evidence-based practices to their care.

For more information, visit: https://www.nmhealth.org/about/ofm/ltcf/tlh/