Los Alamos Medical Center

LAMC serves a very diverse population. More than 30% of our business comes from outside of Los Alamos County, and we are proud to work with our friends and neighbors in Northern New Mexico. In 1963, as the federal government continued to "open" the once secret town and divest itself of many community services, an election was held to choose an organization who would assume operations of the hospital. Lutheran Hospitals and Homes Society of Fargo, ND, won the contest, and, in January, 1964, LHHS founder Fred Knautz purchased the hospital and two adjacent apartment buildings from the Atomic Energy Commission for the grand sum of $1. After that time, LHHS (Lutheran Health Systems - LHS and now Banner Health System - BHS) continued to investin capital improvements to the building, with the current total approaching $20 million. In 2001, Banner announced its intention to focus resources on its network and metropolitan hospitals, and to divest itself of its smaller, free-standing facilities, among them, LAMC. In June, 2002, Province Healthcare of Brentwood, TN, became the new owner of LAMC. Province merged with LifePoint Hospitals, Inc., in April, 2005, making LAMC now a LifePoint hospital. Like Lutheran, Province was heavily invested in rural health care and took aggressive steps to upgrade many areas of LAMC. LifePoint espouses the same community healthcare philosophy and is continuing the capital projects begun under Province. And, while many small, rural hospitals are known as stepping stones or training grounds for administrators, LHS demonstrated its commitment to Los Alamos by assigning only four administrators over its 38 years of service. Robert Hill, 1964-1980; Glenn Bryant, 1980-1986; Paul Wilson, 1987-2000, and Ray Vara, 2000-2002, watched over the facility, providing continuity of care to our patients and guests. Greg Partamian assumed LAMC's leadership role with the advent of Province in June, 2002. Gary Nicholds became the CEO in September, 2004. The majority of community health care providers, including dentists, were housed in the building until the early '70s, when all but physicians moved to other locations in town. To this day, most Los Alamos physician practices have their offices on the LAMC campus, some in the hospital building itself, and some in connecting medical office buildings. This system allows patients the convenience of "one stop shopping" for all of their healthcare services in a single, convenient site. In addition, one practice, Children's Clinic pediatric physicians, has a branch office in White Rock, also conveniently located at State Road 4 and Rover Blvd., adjacent to LAMC's WR Pharmacy branch.