As a safety net hospital, UNMH serves a large percentage of the uninsured and under-insured population of the state.

It was owned and operated by the county, with some additional financial support provided by the federal government on the condition that the hospital maintain at least 100 beds available for medical care of Native American patients.

The hospital became known as Bernalillo County Medical Center in 1968, to emphasize the institution's role in serving the entire community.

The following year, the university assumed operation of the hospital, although Bernalillo County maintained ownership of the facility and property.

[6] UNM Hospital was the only medical center to use extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to treat patients with Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) during the Sin Nombre virus outbreak in the Four Corners region of the United States in the 1990s.

In October 2019, emergency medicine physicians at UNM, in cooperation with local EMS units in Albuquerque, became the first team in the Western Hemisphere to perform out-of-hospital ECMO, initiating treatment for a patient suffering from cardiac arrest prior to transport to the hospital.

[13] It is now a nationally and internationally recognized model for telementoring to medically underserved communities, culminating with the passage of the ECHO Act by Congress in 2016.

[17] The helicopter was in the process of departing the rooftop helipad, when for reasons that could not be determined the hydraulic system most likely had a partial failure resulting in a loss of yaw control.