ECRMC will continue serving as a base hospital
Hospital says it sent notification to Imperial County prematurely; now looking at how it can remain a base hospital for the Imperial Valley
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC) announced to the community in a news conference that it will continue serving as a base hospital, after it had sent a notification to Imperial County saying it wouldn't offer those services after March 22.
ECRMC members, the City of El Centro, and hospital leadership held a news conference Thursday morning to give an update regarding the hospital's services.
“I want our community to know that El Centro Regional Medical Center is open. Our emergency room is open to provide medical services to our community. We are working closely with our hospital administration and local healthcare providers. We will continue to provide quality healthcare services to our community," President of the Board of Directors for ECRMC Tomas Oliva said.
“The hospital’s Emergency Department continues to be open 24/7 with Board-certified Physicians, and the staff is ready to respond to any emergency medical need, including maternal and pediatric emergencies," said Chief Nursing Officer Suzanne Martinez.
Martinez said that even though they submitted a termination notice of base hospital services to the county in December, the board rescinded the notice earlier this week to make sure emergency services continue.
News 11 spoke to Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District this week. Pioneer's said it could take over base hospital services if ECRMC were to stop those services.
Base hospitals work with Emergency Medical Services while they are caring for patients in the field before they arrive in a hospital.
Priorly, ECRMC had said being a base hospital was costing them from $200,000 to $250,000 a year.
All of this comes after the hospital closed its obstetrics and delivery departments, consolidating with Pioneers. Before that ECRMC had announced a partnership with Healthcare Management Partners, announcing a new CEO and CFO, who we recently learned cut ties with the hospital.
ECRMC said it lost millions of dollars in revenue last year.
Visit us at kyma.com for the latest updates on this developing story.
