The Palo Verde Healthcare District Board of Directors will hold an emergency meeting Friday regarding the possible permanent closure of the Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe after lack of funds to continue operating the facility.
The meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Friday at the hospital’s conference room, 250 N. First St.
The District, which operates under Chapter 9 bankruptcy, paid its required share to participate into the Voluntary Rate Range Program, in which the hospital was expected to receive $9.9 million in return to support patient care. Additionally, the district used a $3.45 million working capital loan to fund its obligation to the California Department of Health Care Services’ Intergovernmental Transfer Voluntary Rate Range Program.
However, District officials said that DHCS was looking into the permissibility of using loan funds to participate in the IGT program.
“We pursued every viable option to keep this hospital open and provided everything requested by the state. With the denial of IGT funding, we are left without a sustainable path forward unless another funding source emerges immediately. Even now, we are continuing to look for any alternative source of funding that could allow operations to continue,” Carmela Garnica, chair of the district board of directors, said in a statement.
The hospital will cease all operations at noon Saturday if the District fails to secure $2 million, especially since the District had about 3 days worth of cash to operate the facility.
City council held a special meeting at 1 p.m. Friday to consider authorizing a $330,000 loan to afford the hospital with one more week of emergency operations. However, the loan will be contingent after a change in hospital management and if the hospital remains open.
“We are determined to provide a future pathway for the hospital’s operations,” Blythe Interim City Manager Mallory Crecelius said in a statement. “However, we ask for urgent action from the Governor’s office. This is not a request for new funding; it is a plea to release funds the District has already contributed. Palo Verde Hospital is critical for this region, and we cannot afford to lose it.”
Officials said that Palo Verde is the only hospital serving the more than 17,000 Blythe residents, and if left without care, most would be forced to travel to la Paz Regional Hospital in Arizona or to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio.