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El Centro Regional Medical Center says transfer to district is progressing; license change expected within weeks to months
Summary
Pablo Velez, CEO of El Centro Regional Medical Center, told the City Council the hospitals' transfer to the Imperial Valley Health Care District is moving through state reviews and paperwork, with the transaction expected to close in roughly 30 to 90 days; seismic work and planning for consolidated services continue.
Pablo Velez, chief executive officer of El Centro Regional Medical Center, told the City Council the hospitals’ planned transfer to the Imperial Valley Health Care District is progressing and could be completed “within the next 30 to 90 days.”
Velez said 11 working groups are evaluating consolidation of IT, human resources, contracts and facilities and that staff are preparing applications required by state oversight offices. He named the Office of Health Care Affordability (OCA) as one required review and said the hospitals are also coordinating with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the state Department of Public Health for licensing and surveys.
The CEO said the hospital system is “financially stable” at present and denied that it was in bankruptcy. Responding to council questions about layoffs, Velez said teams from both hospitals are studying how services would be combined and that “there’s no determination that has been done at this point in terms of any layoffs.”
Velez outlined seismic work as a key part of the transition. He said the El Centro Regional Medical Center has five buildings that must meet structural seismic requirements, and that most work is complete. One building will require additional structural plans and a new bidding process; Velez said that work should be done by the end of September. Council members pressed him about the likely scale of retrofitting costs; Velez said the effort is a “huge undertaking” and may reach tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Velez described other operational planning underway: changing provider information for Medicare and Medicaid, preparing change‑of‑ownership filings, and following licensing surveys the Department of Public Health will require once the transaction closes. He said teams are also assessing staffing needs and that the system hopes to hire additional nurses and specialists, noting a shortage in radiology and other technical positions.
The council did not take action on the presentation. Velez said next steps are completion of the OCA and change‑of‑ownership filings and state reviews; he asked the council and community to expect additional updates as the review processes progress.
(Report compiled from the council meeting presentation by Pablo Velez; transcript references: presentation began SEG 150 and continued through SEG 456.)
