SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) El Centro Regional Medical Center is a 161-bed hospital located in the Imperial Valley, which is located in southern County of Imperial by the Mexico-California border. El Centro is the largest city in the County of Imperial. El Centro Regional Medical Center is the largest hospital in Imperial County, predominantly serving a significant immigrant population and low-income community.
(b) El Centro Regional Medical Center employs 875 people. The hospital provides a range of quality services, such as cardiopulmonary, laboratory, pediatrics, telemedicine, emergency services, surgical care, mental health, rehabilitation, intensive care, radiology, oncology, hematology, and women’s health services. El Centro Regional Medical Center recently had to shut down its maternity ward in order to stay financially afloat.
(c) El Centro Regional Medical Center is 92 percent seismically compliant. It is the only hospital in the County of Imperial that has initiated construction to meet seismic compliance standards.
(d) Eighty-two percent of El Centro Regional Medical Center’s patient payer base is Medi-Cal and Medicare. The hospital is in substantial debt, most of which was accrued from seismic retrofitting.
(e) Pioneers Memorial Hospital is a 107-bed hospital located in the Imperial Valley, in southern County of Imperial near the Mexico-California border. The hospital provides important acute care and emergency services in a predominately [sic] farmworker, immigrant, Spanish-speaking community where the nearest alternative hospital can be up to an hour away during regularly congested commutes due to proximity to the border.
(f) Pioneers Memorial Hospital employs 750 people. It provides a range of quality medical services, including birthing centers, cardiopulmonary services, pediatrics, intensive care units, neonatal intensive care units, emergency services, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, and surgical care.
(g) Pioneers Memorial Hospital is under the jurisdiction of the Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District, which is facing negative budget deficiencies. The Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District recently had its credit rating downgraded three notches to “B” amid ongoing operational challenges. The hospital is in substantial debt.
(h) Pioneers Memorial Hospital is not seismically compliant. This hospital must be seismically compliant by the year 2030. Engineering reports show that the main hospital building and administrative wing would have to be entirely rebuilt for seismic compliance resulting in extremely escalating costs.
(i) Heffernan Memorial Healthcare District is located in the City of Calexico. Its acute care hospital closed in 1998, leaving the Imperial Valley with only two hospitals.
(j) Rural hospitals have been identified in various reports as hospitals that are most at risk of closing.
(k) There have been two unsuccessful separate attempts to establish a countywide health care district in the Imperial Valley through the local process. The most recent attempt being in 2014.
(l) The closure of any hospital in the County of Imperial burdens the hospitals and healthcare systems in surrounding regions like that of the Counties of San Diego and Riverside. Patients who are not able to receive medical care will have to commute 2.5 hours to cities like San Diego or Riverside.
(m) Both El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Hospital have received $28 million each from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program demonstrating the dire financial situation the only two existing hospitals in the County of Imperial are facing. Funds from this program may be used for the Imperial Valley Healthcare District.
