Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe is continuing to provide emergency medical care as the facility continues through the process of Chapter 9 bankruptcy and county health officials provide day-to-day management, officials said Tuesday ahead of an open house event set for the end of the month.
The hospital was on the brink of closure when the Riverside University Health System took over in an effort to preserve access to emergency care for residents of the rural community in eastern Riverside County. The nearest facilities with emergency rooms are over an hour’s drive or more from Blythe.
In February, the county Board of Supervisors OK’d a six-month rescue plan for the fiscally troubled Palo Verde Healthcare District, the business entity that operates the hospital.
Michele De Armond, an RUHS executive director, said since the county’s rescue attempt began in February, new equipment and medical personnel have been added. She noted a new EKG machine for assessing and monitoring cardiac issues, an infant warmer, anti-overdose medication and other infrastructure upgrades.
Currently the hospital’s staff totals just under 100, including 25 emergency room physicians and 25-30 nurses and support workers, officials said.
“Everyone is supporting the patient volume in the emergency department,” said Leah Patterson, the hospital’s interim chief nursing officer. “That is the only department currently open providing patient care services.
“We are also operating with our lab and our radiology, we also outpatient services for physicians in the area or for patients who go to Indio, Hemet or other areas,” Patterson said. “We’re the only radiology department in about 120 miles.”
Lisa Mackie, interim emergency department director, said working to keep the hospital’s doors open has been “eye-opening” and “rewarding,” noting that many staff members have close ties to the community.
“Everywhere we go — restaurants, gas stations, hotel lobbies, the grocery store — we wear scrubs and when we are seen in the community without our name tags, we are approached to ask if we work here. … The community keeps thanking us for being here.”
De Armond said one of the biggest challenges was the “assessment phase” early on in the county’s hospital management mission.
“Coming in and figuring out what the day-to-day looked like, what are their policies, procedures and guidelines? How do they staff, how do they order (supplies and equipment)?” De Armond said. “The only hardest part was peeling back all the layers to really get a good handful of what’s going on and how they operate.”
Patterson said a significant challenge has been prioritizing areas of need to address.
“It’s like what problem are we trying to solve? … Which problem do we want to solve first?” she said.
Patterson added that staffing has also proven challenging due to the hospital’s location that requires hours of driving time — “getting licensed people for all the different specialty areas, clinicians that we need, lab, radiology and ER nursing positions,” she said.
About 22,00 people live in Blythe, and the hospital also provides emergency care for two jails in the area.
De Armond said the county’s priority in managing the hospital is to “stabilize” the hospital’s daily operation and “assess” areas in need of improvement.
“Our focus has been on how do we stabilize and move forward?” De Armond said.
On the hospital’s fiscal problems, she said it “has struggled in a variety of ways, it’s a rural hospital. If you look up and down the state of California, rural hospitals are struggling in general. … There are very consistent problems up and down the state and across the country.”
Financial woes
As part of the new management agreement, county supervisors in March authorized $3.44 million as payment to the California Department of Health Services on behalf of the hospital. County spokeswoman Brooke Federico said the payment covered the PVHD’s obligation to the California Voluntary Rate Range Program, which is part of Medi-Cal and administered by the state Department of Health Care Services.
The “intergovernmental transfer” payment enabled the district to access over $9 million in taxpayer-backed credit available through Medi-Cal to support hospital operations.
According to the hospital’s 2026-27 budget that the Palo Verde Healthcare District Board of Directors approved last month, operating expenses total $24.33 million, with $7.95 million for employee compensation, over $15.61 million for supplies and services and $768,000 for “other charges.”
The hospital’s total revenue and funding is nearly $14.89 million, with over $6.02 million from patients, nearly $1.85 from “other revenue” sources and over $7.01 million in “supplemental funding.”
The gap between revenue and expenses is more than $9.44 million, but $3 million grant and loan forgiveness totaling nearly $1.89 million brings the hospital’s insolvent position for this fiscal year down to over $4.56 million.
On July 30, an event titled “The 180-Day Scoop” will open the hospital to the public for an ice cream social and a first-hand look at the facility after six months of county management.