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[article provided by Lona. Thanks!]

http://www.abqjournal.com/paperboy/link/news/7news02-22-00.htm

Tuesday, February 22, 2000
Cuts Set at Indian Hospital

By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer

 The Indian Health Service in Albuquerque is cutting evening hours at its
urgent care clinic and eliminating between 10 and 20 jobs because of a
funding shuffle that will occur when two pueblos take over management of
some portions of their health care.
 Jemez Pueblo will begin running the Indian Health Service clinic at the
pueblo May 1. Isleta Pueblo will begin managing a greater share of its
pharmacy at the same time.
 Those changes mean $1 million in federal funds will go directly to those
pueblos and will result in a $1 million cut in the IHS budget for hospitals,
clinics, pharmacies and dental care.
 The result, according to the director of the Albuquerque service unit, will
be a loss of jobs and a cutback in clinic hours.
 The cuts will come at the evening urgent care clinic at the Albuquerque
Indian Hospital, service director Cheri Lyon said. The clinic is open from 8
a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Beginning in May, it will close at
either 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. on weekdays, Lyon said.
 "The biggest negative," Lyon said, "is we lose the convenience for working
people."
 Patients may still see doctors from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and
Sundays and all holidays. And they will be able to use the IHS 24-hour
physician hot line if they feel ill in the evening, Lyon said.
 The pueblos of Jemez, Zia, Santa Ana, Sandia and Isleta and the Alamo Band
of Navajos share about $10 million in federal money that funds hospital and
clinic care, pharmacy services and dental care to tribal members.
 Under a federal law designed to give tribes more control over their
affairs, tribes may contract with the government to provide their own
services. At Jemez, for example, the IHS doctor and physician's assistant
who have been working at the clinic will stay, but they will be employed by
the pueblo, which will get its health-care dollars directly from the federal
government.
 With Jemez and Isleta removing about $1 million, the IHS will have to cut
jobs, Lyon said. Doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and records clerks
will be affected, she said.
 The IHS provides health care to about 30,000 tribal members in the
Albuquerque metropolitan area and at the Alamo Navajo Reservation.

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