The now-familiar purple and white Christus St. Vincent sign found another home Thursday as the nonprofit health care company announced it had completed its purchase of what had been Santa Fe's only other hospital.

What opened in 2007 as a privately held, doctor-owned hospital at 2990 Rodeo Park Drive East is now Christus St. Vincent Physicans Medical Center. The $14.8 million transaction includes a 38 percent ownership interest in the real estate, hospital administrators said Thursday.

The expansion is the latest for Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and represents an opportunity to develop a state-of-the art center for elective surgery — including orthopedic, urology and less complex neurosurgery, as well as many same-day procedures now done at Christus St. Vincent medical center, administrators said.

Joining hospital administrators and board members Thursday were several top doctors, who lauded the expansion as a good move for patients and the long-term stability of health care in Santa Fe.

The large private rooms and relatively peaceful environment — there is no full-service emergency room — is just what many orthopedic patients want, said Dr. Jan Bear, an orthopedic and sports medicine specialist who handles some 200 joint replacements a year.

"Patients who get a new hip want to feel just as important as that emergency," Bear said. He sees the new facility as way to create an "orthopedic center of excellence in Santa Fe," where surgery patients can heal with a more focused approach and fewer distractions. Christus St. Vincent does about three orthopedic surgeries a day.

Dr. James Melisi, a doctor who joined Christus St. Vincent Neurosurgical Associates from his own practice in Virginia, said there is often a backlog of patients waiting for operating rooms — and more space is needed.

Christus now has 24-hour neurosurgical care in part because it is a regional center and takes in patients from throughout Northern New Mexico, he said.

"We'll still treat more complex problems here," he said of the main hospital. "Many of our procedures — even spinal cases — go home in 24 hours, many go home the same day," Melisi said, and those can now go to Physicians Medical.

Christus is already planning to expand Physicians Medical from 12 to 20 beds as a way to meet immediate needs.

Alex Valdez, hospital chief administrator, said the main Christus building is aging and certain wings will need to be closed for construction improvements. Purchasing the already-going hospital is more economical than it would be to design, permit and build a new one. He said all 65 employees will be retained.

"To build what we just purchased would have taken at least two-three years," Valdez said.

Dr. Stephen Lucero, a urologist who was one of the ownership partners in Physicans Medical, said the hospital served 320 inpatients a year and handled 2,000 procedures a year. Still, the owners could not have continued the business as new health care regulations prohibit the expansion of physican-owned hospitals. As a nonprofit, Christus will not have to pay the $96,000 in annual property taxes incurred by the current owners.

Christus Board president Ron Aldrich said the public has benefited from Christus — as Santa Fe has one of the few hospitals in the country that is debt-free. And the company is strong enough to attract physician specialists — such as neurosurgeons — that is unusual for a town the size of Santa Fe. "Integration of health care systems is the direction the entire county will go," he said.

"That's what the people of Santa Fe need to understand," added Melisi. "You're getting very high quality medical care in variety of specialties unusual for a town of this size."

Dr. Debbie Vigil, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist and hospital board member, who opened a practice in Santa Fe in 1989, agrees.

"No way would I come out of residency and start my practice today. The challenges become more enormous every year."

Vigil also reassured the public that elective reproductive health services such as abortions and tubal ligations — which have never been offered at Physicans Medical or Christus — will continue to be performed at the same-day surgical center in Physicians Plaza, which is owned by SVH SupportCo.

Christus Health Systems follows Catholic directives and prohibits the services.

At Physicians Plaza, Vigil said, "The services are available and the facilities are available."