RATON\u00a0\u2014 A painted phrase decorates the wall inside the front entrance of Miners\u2019 Colfax Medical Center\u2019s long-term care facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went in together, and we came out together,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of several hand-painted murals \u2014 most of them depicting local mines \u2014 that adorn the walls of the facility, which is tasked with caring primarily for former miners and their spouses.<\/p>\n
Residents went into the mine together, came out together, and, now, are cared for together.<\/p>\n
Miners\u2019 Colfax Medical Center\u2019s long-term care facility is a rare jewel in New Mexico\u2019s nursing home landscape: It\u2019s the only facility in the state to hold across-the-board five-star ratings in overall performance, health, staffing and quality from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.<\/p>\n
Most other facilities in the state don\u2019t even come close. Nearly a quarter of New Mexico\u2019s 68 nursing homes received one-star overall ratings during the most recent round of inspections by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Inspectors have cited 11 facilities for abuse.<\/p>\n
However, whether the care available at Miners\u2019 Colfax\u2019s long-term care facility can be replicated elsewhere is hard to say, said Administrator Stephen Kelley. The facility primarily serves occupationally ill and injured miners and their spouses, whose care is largely paid for by century-old trust funds. That funding mechanism simply doesn\u2019t exist for most patients.<\/p>\n
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Leroy Tipton\u00a0holds out his brass check \u2014 No. 243 \u2014 from the seven or so years he spent mining coal in the 1970s. The numbered discs, typically hung on a pegboard at the mine entrance, helped mine officials identify who had exited the mine and who was still inside at a glance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gabriela Campos\/The New Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTo say that this model would work throughout New Mexico or any other state, that would be tough to say because we\u2019re a different category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Long-term care<\/p>\n Raton native Ralph Leal spent nearly 10 years underground. His commute to work involved descending thousands of feet into a Trinidad, Colo., coal mine.<\/p>\n By the end of his mining career, Leal joked he was \u201clike a mushroom.\u201d<\/p>\n Four or five of his co-workers died in the mine during the time he worked there, said Leal, now a 78-year-old resident of the long-term care facility.<\/p>\n \u201cThank God, I wasn\u2019t a fatality,\u201d he said. \u201cWe came pretty close a couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n When Leal started mining in 1971, there were more than 142,000 people working in coal mines nationwide, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Mine Safety and Health Administration. Working under the constant threat of cave-ins, explosions and exposure to toxic substances, 181 American coal miners died on the job that year.<\/p>\n The number of active coal miners in the U.S. has more than halved since Leal\u2019s first year in the mine, data shows. In 2025, only eight miners died in work-related incidents \u2014 though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration still lists \u201cunderground mining machine operator\u201d among the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.<\/p>\n However, many miners feel the effects of the industry long after their last day of work. Exposure to coal dust causes several pulmonary diseases, most notably coal workers\u2019 pneumoconiosis \u2014 better known as black lung \u2014 according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The incurable disease typically takes years to develop and can result in lung impairment, disability and premature death.<\/p>\n Miners\u2019 Colfax Medical Center was established to care for those miners who were injured or ill as a result of their job.<\/p>\n Ralph Leal points out different landmarks on a mural depicting the Sugarite mine last month at the Miners\u2019 Colfax Medical Center in Raton. Leal spent nearly 10 years underground. His commute to work involved descending thousands of feet into a Trinidad, Colo., coal mine.<\/p>\n Gabriela Campos\/The New Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n The hospital\u2019s history predates New Mexico statehood in 1912. The Ferguson Act of 1898 granted millions of acres of land to what was then the New Mexico Territory. The State Land Office now manages 9 million surface acres and 13 million subsurface acres of trust lands given to the state by the federal government, with leasing revenue from each parcel assigned to a specific beneficiary, agency spokesperson Joey Keefe wrote in an email to The New Mexican.<\/p>\n Miners\u2019 Colfax is one of those beneficiaries, with 98,558 surface acres and 120,766 subsurface acres assigned to it. In fiscal year 2025, the State Land Office distributed more than $7.7 million from two state funds to the hospital, Keefe wrote.<\/p>\n Today, the medical center\u2019s long-term care facility operates out of the same building that was once Raton\u2019s main hospital \u2014 the same building where several of its current residents were born. The main hospital, now located on the south side of town, serves as a critical access medical center in northeastern New Mexico \u2014 a federal designation under which certain rural hospitals receive additional Medicare funding to help ensure they stay open \u2014 and the institution provides black lung outreach across the state.<\/p>\n The long-term care facility\u2019s charter indicates it must serve miners first, then miners\u2019 spouses, then others, Kelley said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re only licensed for 37 beds, so we really have to be careful that we have miner beds available,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n All types of miners are welcome, said Yolanda Saenz, the facility\u2019s social services and activities manager.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be a specific type of miner,\u201d she said. \u201cIt could be coal, uranium, gold. As long as you have verification of working in the mine for a year, you qualify to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Different animal\u2019<\/p>\n For most New Mexico patients in need of nursing home care, there is no option equivalent to the long-term care facility at Miners\u2019 Colfax.<\/p>\n The facility\u2019s staff provides medical care like disease management, medication assistance, and lab and X-ray services, in addition to helping with the activities of daily living like eating, bathing and using the bathroom \u2014 paid for in large part by revenue from leasing state trust lands.<\/p>\n That, combined with Miners\u2019 Colfax\u2019s small size and unique patient population, makes the Raton facility a \u201cdifferent animal\u201d from most New Mexico nursing homes, Kelley said.<\/p>\n Leroy Tipton jokes while giving a tour of the murals depicting local mines last month at the Miners’ Colfax\u00a0Medical Center in Raton.<\/p>\n Gabriela Campos\/The New Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere are over 15,000 nursing homes in the United States, and, if the average bed capacity is 100, you\u2019re looking at a lot of people that rely on long-term care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Most eldercare options involve private payment, with some families spending $10,000 per month or more on assisted living facilities, or wrangling with insurance coverage for skilled nursing stays.<\/p>\n Medicare, the public insurance program for older adults, covers short stays at skilled nursing facilities in the aftermath of an injury or illness but it won\u2019t pay for long-term nursing home care, said Angelina Flores-Montoya, deputy Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department. That leaves Medicaid, the public insurance program for low-income Americans, to foot the bill for most long-term care.<\/p>\n Miners\u2019 Colfax, however, can\u2019t fill up its long-term care beds with Medicaid patients, Kelley said. If it did, it wouldn\u2019t be fulfilling its promise to miners.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could fill this building up with Medicaid people instantly \u2014 but that\u2019s not our choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As a state-run facility, Miners\u2019 Colfax also has an easier time recruiting and retaining staff, a crucial step in providing high-quality care. The facility can offer retirement benefits through the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico that far exceed what workers might get at private or nonprofit nursing homes, Kelley said.<\/p>\n Federal data shows nursing staff time averages 4 hours and 40 minutes per resident per day at Miners\u2019 Colfax, well above the national average of 3 hours and 52 minutes and the New Mexico average of 3 hours and 32 minutes. Annual nursing staff turnover at the facility is consistent with nationwide averages but lower than the state average.<\/p>\n Trying to emulate Miners\u2019 Colfax\u2019s long-term care facility by creating other state-run or state-funded nursing homes would open up \u201ca whole other can of worms,\u201d said Tyler Atkins, founding partner of an Albuquerque-based law firm that takes on nursing home abuse cases.<\/p>\n But, he added, it would neutralize the profit motive that can lead some private facilities to cut corners, while empowering the state to ensure the facility provides quality care.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see what the free market gets us as far as quality of care,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cI would definitely not be opposed to that as some kind of a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n A photograph depicts the Miners’ Colfax\u00a0Medical Center when in opened in 1905 as the New Miners Hospital.<\/p>\n Gabriela Campos\/The New Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n Jennifer Foote, a partner at another Albuquerque-based law firm that specializes in nursing home abuse litigation, noted care at state-operated facilities has been \u201cvariable.\u201d The New Mexico State Veterans\u2019 Home in Truth or Consequences serves as an example of that: It has experienced a kind of rebirth<\/a> since the early 2020s, when it was the site of dozens of deaths from COVID-19, the subject of scathing legislative reports and a repeated cause for concern for state lawmakers.<\/p>\n However, she said, it would be nice to use the resources that tend to follow nursing home residents \u2014 specifically, Medicare and Medicaid dollars \u2014 to provide high-quality care.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that would be a wonderful thing if we could figure out a way to sort of replicate that on a big scale,\u201d Foote said.<\/p>\n Both time and longevity contribute to quality of care at Miners\u2019 Colfax, Saenz said.<\/p>\n \u201cQuality care is taking the time to learn your building, learn your residents, learn your staff,\u201d she said. \u201cWalk around \u2014 see what works and what doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A place for miners\u2019<\/p>\n Leroy Tipton still has his brass check \u2014 No. 243 \u2014 from the seven or so years he spent mining coal in the 1970s. The numbered discs, typically hung on a pegboard at the mine entrance, helped mine officials identify at a glance who had exited the mine and who was still inside.<\/p>\n Mining was Tipton\u2019s second career. He previously spent about a decade traveling from horse race to horse race as a jockey.<\/p>\n Given the perils of that profession \u2014 jockeys can sustain serious injuries on the track and sometimes resort to crash diets to meet weight limits \u2014 Tipton said mining was probably the easier of the two jobs.<\/p>\n A hallway at the entrance of the Miners’ Colfax Medical Center in Raton features murals and historic photographs. The facility\u00a0was established to care for those miners who were injured or ill as a result of their job.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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