Carrie Tingley Hospital (CTH) has a legacy of more than sixty years of commitment to New Mexico's children and their families.  Located in Albuquerque, it is one of five hospitals in the Clinical Operations family of the Health Sciences Center at the University of New Mexico.

CTH provides caring and coordinated healthcare to children and adolescents with complex musculoskeletal and orthopaedic conditions, rehabilitation needs, developmental issues and long-term physical disabilities.

In the Autumn of 1937, an historic ceremony was held to open the doors of New Mexico's new children's hospital.  It was named after Carrie Tingley, wife of then Governor Clyde Tingley, who felt a hospital was needed for children of the state who were suffering from polio.

The Tingleys chose the site of Hot Springs, later named Truth or Consequences, located in southern New Mexico. It was known for its healing mineral waters, and it resembled a similar site in Warm Springs, Georgia, where their friend President Franklin Roosevelt was treated for polio.

As polio became less widespread due to new vaccines, the hospital direction began to focus on other orthopedic conditions such as scoliosis, clubfoot, cerebral palsy and spina bifida.

In 1981, the hospital moved to Albuquerque to align itself closer with medical services and consultants here.  In 1987 the UNM Board of Regents was appointed as the CTH Board of Directors.  Subsequent legislative action merged Carrie Tingley Hospital with the UNM Medical Center.

Carrie Tingley Hospital is now a component of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.  CTH houses a 24-bed inpatient unit and conducts 21 specialized clinics for children from birth to 21 years of age.  A community outreach program visits 16 communities throughout New Mexico, enabling rural patients to be seen by CTH doctors and staff.

Surgery is performed at University Hospital.  All children who are residents of New Mexico may receive services.  Rehabilitation is in-house under the care of board-certified doctors and therapists.  Carrie Tingley Hospital has a full service orthotics and prosthetics department to meet all the children's needs.

Over 85 percent of patient encounters at Carrie Tingley Hospital are with children who have chronic conditions, requiring complex specialty care only available at Carrie Tingley Hospital and the UNM Health Sciences Center.  With a growth in patient volume of over 55% in recent years, Carrie Tingley Hospital is expanding these highly specialized services.

Children, particularly those with chronic conditions, need different healthcare focusing on their unique needs while involving their parents from start to finish, provided in a place that is child-friendly.  Because of these additional resources needed, specialty care for children often costs more than what is reimbursed by health insurance companies.  That is why Carrie Tingley Hospital has always received direct funding from the state of New Mexico.

As an integrated part of the UNM Health Sciences Center, Carrie Tingley Hospital can offer services along a continuum of care.  If services are not directly available at the Carrie Tingley Hospital facility, children can access other specialty services available within the UNM Health Sciences Center such as at Children's Hospital of New Mexico, Children's Psychiatric Hospital or UNM Hospital.  Surgery and intensive care services for Carrie Tingley Hospital patients, for example, are provided at UNM Hospital.  And the Carrie Tingley Hospital Orthotics and Prosthetics department provides services to UNM Hospital patients who need braces or prosthetics.  UNM Hospital has also assisted Carrie Tingley Hospital by funding muchneeded medical equipment and renovations.  These partnerships help establish a network of services to provide the comprehensive care our children need.

Carrie Tingley Hospital also serves as a vital partner in the UNM Health Sciences Center's educational mission.  CTH participates in training the pediatricians, orthopaedists, nurses, rehabilitation therapists and dental hygienists of tomorrow.   By learning their profession in a children's specialty hospital, these healthcare professionals gain a special appreciation of how important it is for parents and families to be a central part of the care every child receives.  In concert with its other UNM Health Sciences Center partners, Carrie Tingley Hospital is also at the forefront of cuttingedge health research to improve children's health and specialty health care.