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San Antonio Regional Hospital outlines staffing, ED volume and behavioral health plans to Chino council
Summary
Hospital representatives told the City Council about rising emergency department visits, workforce shortages, a new residency program launching in July and plans for behavioral health urgent-care clinics and a new maternity wing; no council action was required.
Heather Raymond, chief marketing and communications officer for San Antonio Regional Hospital, briefed the Chino City Council on April 1 about health-care trends affecting the Inland Empire and the hospital’s plans to expand services.
Raymond said California hospitals face financial and workforce pressures, noting seismic compliance costs, rising labor costs and a persistent shortage of nurses and primary care physicians. She said San Antonio Regional’s emergency department was built to serve about 75,000 visits per year; the hospital handled about 95,000 visits last year and is on track to exceed 100,000 this year.
To address access and workforce challenges, Raymond said the hospital will begin its first residency program in July with 10 residents, with the goal of retaining physicians in the Inland Empire. She also described plans to open behavioral health urgent-care sites (noninpatient settings) and said the hospital is expanding its Care 4 U clinics to give discharged patients timely follow-up care; Raymond said Care 4 U has locations in Upland and Fontana and offers follow-up within seven days when primary-care appointments are unavailable.
Raymond gave local demographic and utilization figures for Chino-area ZIP codes (presented in the hospital slides): she said residents of ZIP code 91710 are about 41% male and 58% female; about 50% identify as Hispanic and 36% as white non‑Hispanic, and about 34% of that ZIP code’s residents have received a mental-health diagnosis. For ZIP code 91708 she cited similar mental-health utilization rates and said roughly 8,500 people from Chino came through the hospital’s emergency department last year with some type of mental-health issue.
Raymond also described planned investments: a new maternity wing with a NICU and upgraded labor-and-delivery amenities (fundraising underway, construction planned to start next year) and a Center for Aging to consolidate senior services in one location. She highlighted awards and quality recognitions the hospital has received.
The presentation was informational and prompted no council action; council members thanked San Antonio Regional Hospital for the briefing and welcomed the hospital’s increased presence in Chino.
