Riverside County government stands ready to implement plans for the preservation of emergency care at bankrupt Palo Verde Hospital, which faces imminent shutdown of operations as cash and credit dry up at the Blythe facility, it was confirmed Thursday.
The county Executive Office, with the full support of Supervisor Manuel Perez, whose Fourth District encompasses the Palo Verde Valley, sent a proposal to Palo Verde Healthcare District administrators Wednesday offering aid that would, at least, enable maintenance of emergency medical care at the hospital until summer.
“I am thankful for the support of my colleagues to assist the people of the Palo Verde community, who desperately need access to emergency medical care,” Perez said. “I am proud of the Board of Supervisors, county CEO Jeff Van Wagenen and our county teams for their unwavering dedication to meet the safety net needs of our residents. I look forward to hearing the response from the Palo Verde Healthcare District.”
District administrators on Thursday were reportedly considering the county’s offer.
Without the hospital, the nearest option for emergency healthcare would be more than 70 miles away, according to officials.
In a statement released by the Executive Office Wednesday night, the county highlighted the significant likelihood of the loss of emergency medicine at the hospital after the California Department of Healthcare Services nixed a planned “voluntary rate range intergovernmental transfer” that would’ve extended $9.9 million in credit for remaining operations.
The Blythe City Council has since approved a $330,000 bridge loan, but that would only keep the emergency room’s doors open for another week, officials said.
“The county realizes the dire financial distress of the hospital worsens by the day, with the threat of imminent closure,” according to an EO statement.
Under the agency’s proposal, the county would allocate $1 million from unspecified accounts to sustain emergency operations at the hospital. The funds would be supplemented by a “stakeholder strike force” selected by the EO “to independently stabilize and manage only the hospital’s emergency department for six months, assess current conditions and make recommendations for next steps.”
The EO emphasized that the financial outlay and strike force would not imply any county “liability for the district, the hospital, nor the debt.”
At the end of September, the Palo Verde Healthcare District Board of Directors voted to seek federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection for the district while efforts were made to rectify ongoing financial losses.
Administrators noted the hospital had been struggling to remain afloat since the start of the current decade, with revenue streams withering while patient loads remained unchanged.
The California Health Facilities Financing Authority extended an $8.5 million infusion from the Distressed Hospital Program in 2023, but that turned into a short-term fix, according to the district.
Administrators expressed frustration at the time about the inability to recruit a chief financial officer who would stay the course in sorting out possible solutions. Four CFOs came and went in an 18-month span.
“Chapter 9 is the last tool left while we work to fix the financial management challenges that have so drastically impacted the hospital during the past several years,” PVHD Board President Carmela Garnica said in October. “Our community deserves a functioning hospital. We are doing everything we can to keep it open.”
We the people want riverside county to take over the hospital. Remove all board members from this place. Nothing came out of them but selfishness, corruption, and lack of care for the community.
We are delighted that Riverside County is stepping in to support PVH. As a protege of Dr Philip Lee Chancellor of UCSF and the Palo Alto Clinic, a former advisor to the county hospital, a founder of the American HMO Movement, and co-owner of a new Rural Centric Care Organization dedicated to centralizing care for 18,000 to 20,000 Americans in Blythe, I and our medical group and managed care operation from Imperial Valley (LegacyMD Medical Group, EasyAccess Care IPA and Advanced MSO) are looking forward to expanding physician resources there and ending the dreadful 200 and 300 mile trips back and forth and back and forth that the elderly, children and the rest have had to make over the past many years.