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Dr. Rebecca Fastle said she likes a challenge 鈥� and behavioral healthcare in Bernalillo County, where needs historically outweigh the resources, has been just that.

Fastle, a former leading physician at the county jail while working for the University of New Mexico Hospital, was named Bernalillo County's chief medical officer Thursday. She will be paid a salary of $350,000, according to the county's website.

County spokesperson Melissa Smith said in a statement that filling the brand-new position marked a "significant step in strengthening healthcare leadership across county systems." Smith said Fastle, who took the reins as CMO on June 1, will "guide medical leadership and policy decisions" for healthcare at the Metropolitan Detention Center and the juvenile detention center.

She said Fastle will also serve as a county liaison to providers, lead initiatives to address health needs across county programs and work with county partners to address statewide workforce shortages in healthcare fields.

鈥淚 love a challenge. I think you learn and grow, and are humbled. I think you have to be humbled every day in medicine," Fastle said in an interview Thursday. In her first few days, she said, she had already toured the Tiny Home Village, which provides housing, and the CARES Campus, which offers detox and other services.

Fastle, who has experience in private practice and emergency medicine, most recently implemented healthcare strategies for UNMH at MDC 鈥� a facility that has continued to struggle to provide standard medical care amid a string of inmate deaths over the past several years, many of them involving people in detox.

Fastle said she intended to be at MDC for a "six- to 12-month period" after UNMH began providing healthcare at the facility in 2023. She said her aim was to stand up the medical program and, as management roles filled around her, onsite leadership took over.

Fastle ended up staying from June 2023 to December 2025. In a statement Friday, UNMH spokesperson Chris Ramirez said, "We look forward to working with Dr. Fastle in her new role."

She said healthcare issues at MDC will be "top priority" and she feels her experience inside the facility is her greatest asset.

Fastle said she will work with her former employer to come into compliance with the McClendon settlement agreement 鈥� centered on overcrowding and inmate treatment at the jail 鈥� and improve safety for the patients at MDC, whom she called 鈥渁n incredibly vulnerable, high-risk patient population."

鈥淩ight now there's tremendous challenges with meeting those healthcare demands,鈥� Fastle said, adding that staffing at the facility is a 鈥渉uge issue.鈥� County commissioners last month increased UNMH's budget by $4 million due to rising costs that officials attributed to the use of travel nurses amid a nursing shortage statewide.

Complicating matters at MDC in recent years is the city of sa国际传媒官网网页入口's increased enforcement of code violations 鈥� like blocking sidewalks 鈥� that has led to the unhoused becoming the largest population cycling in and out of the jail. 

Fastle said patients at MDC "really face significant challenges when they get out of the jail. That population is one that I think we can all really learn and grow from by making sure that that population is supported.鈥�

Fastle has done a little bit of everything.

She graduated from Manzano High in 1982 and did her residency at UNMH before moving onto specialty training in pediatric emergency care in Denver. Fastle said she then worked in private practice in Texas for 12 years. 

In 2013, she said, it was time to come back to UNMH.

鈥淚 really felt like my priorities were in the wrong place, and I wanted to come back to an academic medical institution where I could make an impact on learners and our patients, and we have an incredibly vulnerable patient population all across the board with little access to care,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat's really what drew us back, is I really wanted to come where there's more meaningfulness to the practice of medicine.鈥�

She said she is looking forward to bringing together healthcare and related entities, including integrating electronic health records and streamlining communication.

"There's a lot going on in the county that fragments, and people are doing important work and trying to connect those dots," Fastle said. "That's what I've seen over the past few days, is really bringing together teams to connect the dots, so that everybody is on the same page and can see the same patients, and I think that's going to take a little bit of time.鈥�