Coordinated care on the frontier

The area served by Hidalgo Medical Services sprawls across 7,400 square miles in the deserts of southwest New Mexico -- a region roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode stand combined. Within that area, there are 34,000 people and no acute care hospitals. Starting with a single National Health Service Corps trailer in the 1980s -- and after a nine-year period in which there were no health care providers at all in Hidalgo County -- Hidalgo Medical Services has grown to 12 clinics, serving 60% of the population of southwest New Mexico with primary care, mental health, dental services and family support.