Presbyterian Rust Medical Center Chief Hospital Executive Angela Ward stands in front of the newly completed second Physician Office Building at the medical center last Tuesday. The facility opens in phases starting this Tuesday. Argen Marie Duncan photo.

Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ new building in Rio Rancho is expanding services and saving patients money, beginning Tuesday.
The three-story, 109,000-square-foot second Physician Office Building on the Presbyterian Rust Medical Center campus took $34.5 million and more than a year to construct, said Rust Chief Hospital Executive Angela Ward. It will allow consolidation of existing services, as well as a new ambulatory, or outpatient, surgery center.
Providers have been using the Rust operating room for both inpatient and outpatient, or general, surgeries. Because inpatient surgeries typically take much longer than ambulatory surgeries, the mixed use doesn’t offer the smoothest logistics, Ward said.
“An outpatient surgery center is more cost-effective for patients and more efficient for surgeons,” she said.
The efficiency of separate facilities creates the cost savings.
By the end of 2022, Ward said, the outpatient surgery clinic will have 45 new employees.
“They’ll do a slow ramp-up for the surgery center,” she said.
The first service to move into the new building will be general surgery, which is already on the Rust campus. Ward said the new space will give that clinic room to grow.
She expects the Presbyterian Breast Care oncology clinic already at Rust to expand into the new office building as well. Pain and spine care will move from High Resort Boulevard, and the gastrointestinal lab and clinic is coming from Southern Boulevard.
By the end of the phased move-in, about 100 existing Presbyterian employees will work in the new building.
Ward said leaders haven’t decided what they’ll do with the space those services are leaving, but Presbyterian will repurpose it.
“That’ll be space where we can grow other outpatient services,” she said.
Ward said it was inspiring to see the second Physician Office Building go up during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Presbyterian employees are happy to be on the back side of the pandemic and opening the facility.
“We look forward to continuing to grow with Rio Rancho,” she said.