A municipality may:

A. control and regulate hospitals;

B. construct hospitals and medical dispensaries;

C. contribute to the support of any county hospital located within the municipality;

D. own, maintain and operate hospitals;

E. charge for hospital services rendered;

F. lease the hospital, sanitarium or other institution upon such terms and conditions as the governing body may determine to any person, corporation or association for the operation and maintenance of the hospital; provided that the lease may be terminated by the governing body of the municipality without cause upon one hundred eighty days' notice after the first three years of the lease; and further provided that a person, association or corporation demonstrating a consistent history of service to sick and indigent persons may include the value of in-kind services provided to the municipality as a portion of consideration due on any lease for the use of hospital facilities owned by the municipality. The lease agreement must set forth the respective value of services being provided to residents and the relative value of the use of property provided by the municipality;

G. contract with the human services department or the board of county commissioners for the care of sick or indigent persons;

H. accept grants for constructing, equipping and maintaining the hospital; and

I. perform any act or adopt any regulation necessary or expedient to carry out the provisions of this section.

History: 1953 Comp., § 14-45-1, enacted by Laws 1965, ch. 300; 1973, ch. 258, § 135; 2001, ch. 291, § 1; 2007, ch. 196, § 1.

Cross references. — For human services departments, see 9-8-1 NMSA 1978 et seq.

For licensing health facilities under the Public Health Act, see 24-1-5 NMSA 1978 et seq.

For the Indigent Hospital and County Health Care Act, see 27-5-1 NMSA 1978 et seq.

For the Medical Malpractice Act, see 41-5-1 NMSA 1978 et seq.

The 2007 amendment, effective June 15, 2007, amended Subsection F to authorize a municipality to consider in-kind service to sick and indigent persons as part of the consideration in the lease of a hospital.

The 2001 amendment, effective June 15, 2001, added the proviso in Subsection F, and substituted "human services" for "health and social services" in Subsection G.

Nurses' home. — Where a benefactor of the Ruidoso hospital has offered to construct a nurses' home on the hospital property and to lease the nurses' home from the hospital board and pay as rental all of the receipts from the home except $100 per month, in view of the fact that the addition of a nurses' home to the hospital would be advantageous and would tend to promote the purposes of the Hospital Act, there is ample statutory authority to carry out the agreement along the lines indicated. 1953 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 53-5765.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 40 Am. Jur. 2d Hospitals and Asylums § 3.

Trust for hospital, power of municipality to accept and administer, 10 A.L.R. 1376.

Hospitals for insane, restrictions on location, 17 A.L.R. 526.

Power of municipal corporation to provide hospital, 25 A.L.R. 612.

Civil liability of landowner for killing or injuring trespassing dog, 15 A.L.R.2d 859.

Zoning regulations expressly referring to hospitals, sanitariums, nursing homes, validity and construction of, 27 A.L.R.3d 1022.

Exclusion of or discrimination against physician or surgeon by hospital authorities, 37 A.L.R.3d 645.

Validity and construction of statute requiring establishment of "need" as precondition to operation of hospital or other facilities for the care of sick people, 61 A.L.R.3d 278.

Liability for wrongful autopsy, 18 A.L.R.4th 858.

Liability of hospital for injury to person invited or permitted to accompany patient during emergency room treatment, 90 A.L.R.4th 478.

Liability of hospital, physician, or other medical personnel for death or injury from use of drugs to stimulate labor, 1 A.L.R.5th 243.

Liability of hospital, physician, or other medical personnel for death or injury to mother or child caused by improper administration of, or failure to administer, anesthesia or tranquilizers, or similar drugs, during labor and delivery, 1 A.L.R.5th 269.

Hospital's liability for injury resulting from failure to have sufficient number of nurses on duty, 2 A.L.R.5th 286.

Liability of physician, nurse, or hospital for failure to contact physician or to keep physician sufficiently informed concerning status of mother during pregnancy, labor, and childbirth, 3 A.L.R.5th 123.

Liability of hospital, physician, or other medical personnel for death or injury to mother or child caused by inadequate attendance or monitoring of patient during and after pregnancy, labor, and delivery, 3 A.L.R.5th 146.

Closing or relocation of medical facility serving large numbers of minority citizens as violative of Title VI of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 USCS § 2000d et seq.), 69 A.L.R. Fed. 588.

41 C.J.S. Hospitals § 6.