Melrose clinic may resume operations

MELROSE — The Melrose Medical Clinic is likely to resume operations after more than a year of vacancy, if Curry County and Presbyterian Health Services (PHS) can reach an agreement on terms to reopen the facility.

County Manager Lance Pyle said if the parties reach agreement, the Melrose-based clinic would again start serving a wide-ranging rural area that extends as far west as Fort Sumner in De Baca County and into southern Quay County.

Plains Regional Medical Center Administrator Jorge Cruz confirmed the negotiations in a brief email on Monday.

“We know that our communities in eastern New Mexico appreciate more health care options close to home,” he said in the email. “We are currently in discussions with the County about the possibility of reopening the Melrose clinic.”

PHS operates the regional medical center.

If the county and Presbyterian reach agreement, PHS would become the fourth medical group to contract with the county, which owns the Melrose Medical Clinic, to set up operations at the facility, Pyle said.

When the facility was built in 2010 with federal Community Development Block Grant funds, La Casa Family Health Care ran the clinic for about four years. Roosevelt General Hospital then took over the clinic for another four years. The most recent contractor, Clovis Family Health Services, operated the clinic for two years.

Clovis Family Health dissolved in 2020 after the death of its founder, Dr. Jon Shrader, leaving the clinic again without an operator, Pyle said.

Pyle said he is currently seeking a one-year trial agreement with PHS to operate the Melrose clinic, knowing that RGH abandoned the clinic because it was losing money, according to news accounts.

While operations might be limited to one or two days a week, Pyle said, he is hopeful the Melrose clinic can also work with Melrose schools to provide physical examinations and other services to students.