The new state-of-the-art replacement hospital that the University of New Mexico is proposing will contain an estimated 350 adult beds and cost as much as half a billion dollars, according to an article on the Albuquerque Journal News.

The lack of vacant beds and overcrowding is such a big problem that some patients are bedded down in the Emergency Department; others are placed in recovery rooms, sometimes for several days, waiting for an available bed in a regular ward, the article said.

Steve McKernan, CEO of UNM Hospitals, and Dr. Michael Richards, the executive physician-in-chief of the UNM Health System, said the new facility most likely would be a high-rise building, which is more practical than a one- or two-level facility that spreads over a wide area.

Transporting patients is easier and less time-consuming if elevators can replace long hallways, they said. Plus, it would use less land.

Read the article.