The Palo Verde Healthcare District Board of Directors last weekend approved a 60-day emergency reorganization plan in an attempt to address financial issues that forced Palo Verde Hospital to stop admitting patients late last month.
“Over the past couple of weeks, our team of expert advisors has been working with the board to develop a comprehensive 60-day emergency operations plan and a set of short-term stabilization initiatives,” Board President Carmela Garnica said at an emergency June 7 meeting streamed live on social media by a resident. “These measures are designed to strengthen our financial position, maintain core services and safeguard patient care during this critical period.”
As part of the plan, the board will reconfigure critical care and emergency service, implement streamlined financial controls and vendor agreements, deploy flexible staffing models and cross-training initiatives and accelerate negotiations with state and regional partners for emergency funding, according to a statement posted on the hospital’s website.
According to Michael Rose, the hospital’s controller, the hospital was on track to have a $10.1 million structural deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year if no adjustments were made. Rose said that the hospital district had a positive fund balance prior to the pandemic, and through the use of one-time funds, was able to maintain that positive fund balance, though it started to decline in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
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“The projection is to continue to go into a negative fund balance in the next several fiscal years,” he said after the board came back from closed session.
However, with the proposed changes, Rose said the hospital was projected to end the 2025-26 fiscal year with a $4.8 million deficit, which would be reduced to $800,000 if the state comes through with the $4 million in emergency funding that’s been requested.
“[That] is a lot more workable for the upcoming fiscal year,” he said.
The emergency meeting came just two weeks after the hospital board voted to suspend patient admissions for the “foreseeable future,” and about a week after the city of Blythe created an ad hoc committee to work with the hospital to try to find a viable pathway forward. The district appointed Garnica and Vice President Rosie Rowell to the committee as well as Rose.
“We understand the important role the hospital plays in this community,” Sandra Anaya, hospital CEO said. “We are fully committed to restoring sustaining services as quickly and safely as possible.”
The hospital board is set to hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. on June 25 at Blythe City Hall to discuss a resolution declaring a fiscal emergency.
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