Mar. 27 -- Presbyterian Healthcare Services' chief executive avoided directly addressing merger speculation at an Albuquerque business meeting Wednesday, following the collapse of a major deal two years ago.

"No updates. ... Our focus is on us. Our focus is on New Mexico. Our focus is on 2025," Dr. Rishi Sikka, the Presbyterian CEO, told a group of business leaders at the Economic Forum of Albuquerque.

The response follows a blown deal between Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Iowa-based UnityPoint Health -- which disintegrated in 2023 for reasons the state's largest health system has not disclosed. Presbyterian executives had promoted the deal as a cost-cutting and efficiency-improving move that would've created an $11 billion conglomerate.

It also comes as hospital mergers have grown. A report from the health care consulting firm Kaufman Hall noted 72 U.S. hospital mergers took place in 2024 -- an increase from the previous two years, in part stimulated by a troubled medical industry. The report found that nearly one in three mergers involved a distressed party operating with negative budgets.

The Legislature also approved a bill requiring a review of "proposed transactions that involve mergers, acquisitions or other actions that change control of a hospital or certain health care provider organizations," according to an analysis from the Health Care Authority. Its the second session in a row lawmakers have strengthened merger oversight.

Sikka focused his hourlong speech on Presbyterian's future. In doing so, he acknowledged volatility at the federal level -- which has created uncertainty for all health systems, including Presbyterian. Sikka's speech did not specify any issues in particular -- like pending cuts to federal Medicaid dollars, threats to medical research funding or the U.S. Health and Human Services Department embrace of vaccine skeptics to head key positions -- but said the ever-changing shifts are a concern.

"There's so many of those dynamics at the federal level that affect health care in states and in local communities," Sikka said.

But in looking to the future, Sikka described three goals for 2025: delivering safe, high-quality, compassionate and equitable care; keeping patients and members healthy; and engaging and retaining a talented team.

To the first point, Sikka highlighted Presbyterian's Healthcare Advanced Learning Lab. The $6 million facility includes four inpatient rooms, an emergency room, a clinical room, an apartment meant to simulate how first responders would react to a home call and a post-operation room.

"This is the kind of environment where you train folks to be able to deliver safe and high-quality care so they can perfect it," Sikka said.

Sikka, who took over the leadership role at Presbyterian in October 2024, also highlighted Presbyterian's Food Farmacy, a referral-based food pantry for patients deemed food insecure. Based on a high demand for services, Sikka said that Presbyterian planned to expand the program, although he did not provide specifics on the plan.

"We couldn't accomplish any of this without having an incredible, incredible workforce," Sikka said. "We have challenges in our state with recruitment, and it's not just a challenge for New Mexico, it's a challenge for the country."

Sikka pointed out that the Health Resources and Services Administration, under the purview of the federal Department of Health, designates 32 of New Mexico's 33 counties as health care provider shortage areas. Moreover, federal data shows that New Mexico is short about 7,000 registered nurses and 150 primary care physicians.

"The workforce shortage problem is not simply a New Mexico problem. We are competing with states all across the country for talent," Sikka said.

At the audience's request, Sikka addressed some of the legislative proposals aimed at alleviating the shortage, including a failed bill that would've capped medical malpractice settlements.

Supporters of the measure said it would help to improve New Mexico's provider deficit, while opponents said it would make it harder for patients to sue after botched procedures.

"I've seen both sides. As an emergency medicine physician and how that experience kind of weighs on you, and I've also seen it as a son and as a husband, where I saw things happen in care that I didn't think were very cool," Sikka said.

Sikka didn't take a side but added that Presbyterian is committed to hiring more physicians. He also said Presbyterian had granted an additional week of paid time off to all staff as a means of improving retention.

In closing, Sikka repeated a mantra from Marion K. Van Devanter, one of Presbyterian's founders: If we can help, we should.

"That is still her heartbeat," Sikka said. "It is still a part of the pulse of our organization, and that pulse is the pulse that we are going to raise up and have even louder and stronger in 2025 and as we go forward."