Hospital explains how many immigrants they treat on a weekly basis
Border Patrol claimed nearly 2,000 undocumented immigrants received treatment from our local hospital. The Yuma Regional Medical Center said treating immigrants is nothing new, but the increase is.
The Yuma Regional Medical Center claimed those patients are not treated any differently than any other patient. The only difference is a Border Patrol agent is sitting outside of their hospital room.
The hospital said medical costs for each patient varies depending on what their conditions, but they claimed they don’t directly run off of taxpayer dollars.
They said there is a pool of funds that the government has for these individuals and they submit the bill to them and eventually get reimbursed.
YRMC claimed there has been an increase in the number of patients coming from border patrol.
“On average, we’re probably seeing about 5 to 10 a day come in through the emergency department with various ailments. What you would see probably from most travelers. most of it is dehydration. Some of it could be an upper respiratory infection[and] some of it could be other issues as well. Trauma is something that we see, sprained ankles from people who could be jumping over the wall. They may have an injury that we’ll treat as well,” said Dr. Robert Trenschel, CEO and President of YRMC.
They add they also treat pregnant women.
“We have about 25 females that come into our doors that are pregnant. If they are pregnant or stated that they are pregnant, then we’ll go into our full evaluation of those individuals as well,” said Dr. Trenschel.
Yuma Sector Border Patrol claimed they used 10,000 hours of man power to escort patients.
“These statistics show that we are increasing in our apprehension numbers. Now agents who are usually patrolling the border or performing their national security mission are now having to take in an increasing number of individuals to the hospital and stay with them,” Agent Jose Garibay, Yuma Sector Border Patrol.
As for the language barrier that may be there, they say they have several staff members who speak more than one language and even have a hotline that can help translate.
