Are Three Acute Care Hospitals Too Many?

The Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) district plans to dismantle the Palomar Medical Center (PMC) as an acute care hosital. PMC is the Heart of Downtown Escondido. PPH will take this unwise action because it believes that two acute care hospitals are better for Inland North San Diego County than three acute care hospitals.



1. Palomar Medical Center (Not Needed?)
(Palomar Pomerado Health)
Trauma Center – Level II
2. Pomerado Hospital
(Palomar Pomerado Health)
Not a Trauma Center
New. Palomar Medical Center West (Location Unknown)
((Palomar Pomerado Health)
Trauma Center – Level ?

Population by City (2002):
Escondido 162,131
Rancho Bernard. 65,581
San Marcos 62,599
Rancho Penasq. 52,781
Poway 49,331
Ramona 34,265
Valley Center 17,434
Julian, Pala, etc. 8,616
Total: 452,738
(Projection (by PPH) for 2020: 592,825)


By way of comparison, the San Bernardino Valley (about 80 miles north of Escondido) has seven (7) acute care hospitals! The seven hospital are within a few miles of each other.

1. Loma Linda University Medical Center
(Seventh Day Adventist)
Trauma Center – Level II
2. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
(San Bernardino County)
Trauma Center – Level II
3. St. Bernardine Medical Center
(Catholic Healthcare West)
4. Community Hospital of San Bernardino
(Catholic Healthcare West)
5. Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Administration
(VA) Medical Center
6. Loma Linda UMC – East Campus Hospital
(Seventh Day Adventists)
7. Redlands Community Hospital
(Non-Profit Independent)

Population by City (2000):
San Bernardino 185,401
Rialto 91,873
Redlands 63,691
Colton 47,662
Highland 44,605
Loma Linda 18,681
Total: 451,913

The populations of the San Bernardino Valley and the Inland North San Diego County are about the same.

During the campaign for Proposition BB, PPH emphasized that the Emergency Room at PMC is crowded to beyond its capacity almost every morning. However, PPH has not adequately explained how merely moving the Emergency Room will address the overcrowding issue.

Three Emergency Rooms are better than two, and less than seven.

The Facilities Master Plan favored two acute care hospitals because the new hospital was to be in "the vicinity of Palomar Medical Center". See:
http://members.cox.net/4robroy/escondido/PPH-MFPp2-1l.PDF

Since the likely sites for the new hospital are not "in the vicinity of Palomar Medical Center", PPH should implement an alternate three (3) hospital plan, such as scheme D1 of its Facilities Master Plan, keeping PMC as a 120 bed acute care hospital. See the table on page 1-5:
http://civics.robroy.cc/PPH-MFPp1-5.PDF