Senate Education sends $350,000 recurring UNM medical Spanish program to next committee, 6–3

Senate Education voted 6–3 to advance Senate Bill 179, a recurring $350,000 appropriation to the UNM Health Sciences Center for medical Spanish education intended to improve patient safety and develop a bilingual health workforce.

Sponsor Senator Lopez said the program trains health professionals in medical Spanish for clinical terminology and safety; Dr. Veronica Plaza, director of the clinical communication skills in Spanish program, told the committee that when language-concordant care is not provided it can lead to adverse events and poorer outcomes. "When a language concordance care is not provide, it turns out into most of the time, turns out into adverse events, that are linked to patient safety and poor outcomes," Dr. Plaza said.

Supporters included Nathan Bush of the University of New Mexico and Buco Estrada of the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, who urged the committee to increase the number of bilingual health professionals statewide. Bush said UNM and partners see the program as critical to training clinicians who can serve Spanish-speaking patients.

Senators broadly supported the goal but raised sustainability and equity questions: why fund only UNM rather than a statewide program, whether UNM will embed the program in its operational budget, and how recurring funding would be sustained. Dr. Plaza said the program is not yet in UNM’s operational budget and staff are seeking grants and private support while requesting state help to scale up. Several members characterized the appropriation as a prototype to refine before broader deployment.

A do-pass motion was approved on roll call 6–3 (yes: Senators Figueroa, Hickey, Nava, Ramos, Thornton, Pope; no: Senators Boone, Ezell, Soles). The committee directed sponsors and institutional leaders to work on sustainability and potential pathways to expand similar training to other institutions.