PMHD gets Valley involved
BRAWLEY — Members of the community had the opportunity to share their concerns and ideas as to what are the areas in the health care services need to be prioritized in the future during a town hall meeting hosted by the Pioneers memorial Healthcare District on Thursday evening.
This was the first time the hospital has reached out to the valley residents to get a different perspective of what areas they’d like to see improved.
“It’s very important as to the extent that there are ideas that we hadn’t considered before,” said PMHD chief executive officer Larry Lewis prior to the town hall. “If we see that there is a strong community support for it we are going to put in more resources toward making those things happen.”
Before giving the opportunity to those in attendance to share their thoughts, Lewis began the town hall by providing an update on the most recent developments and plans the hospital has in the works which include the most recent additions which include the Pioneers Health Center, the Center for Digestive and Liver Disease, Cancer Institute, Wound Clinic, the Women’s Health Center and the recent partnerships with Scripps Health Network and Rady Children’s Hospital.
Lewis shared some of the plans for the future which include adding a neurosurgeon, intervention radiologist, cardiac catheterization lab and expansion of the emergency services.
“The board has been working to a point where we wanted to do this and had all the resources to do it, Lewis said. “We want to make sure that we don’t leave out the community. It’s something the board has been wanting to do for a long time, for us, it’s hard sometimes to know everything that is needed and what will be supported in the community.”
A member of the Southwest Dental Groups asked Lewis whether the district had considered expanding the collaboration with dental services in the valley as dental issues could lead to other health concerns.
Also, members of the LGBT resources center expressed their concern with the lack of access to Hormonal Replacement Therapy in the valley, they pointed out that a significant portion of the local LGBT community doesn’t have the means to travel outside the county. Lewis said there are physicians he believes would be interested in exploring that option and noted that additional meetings could be a good starting point to get familiarized with the health concerns the LGBT community has.
“This is the type of response we had been hoping for,” Lewis said during the town hall as the ideas presented were being written down.
Former chief executive officer of the Cancer Resource Center of the Desert Diana Peacher suggested that endocrinology is a big need in the area due to the high rate of obesity and diabetes in the valley, she later suggested gerontology care could become a major need in the future as the number of senior in Imperial County is expected to grow substantially in coming years.
Other suggestions made during the meeting included additional focus on post-partum care and psychiatric care.
PMHD will have additional town halls throughout the valley to continue to identify key areas of need that need to be considered as part of their strategic planning. The next meeting will take place in Imperial on March 29 and then in Calexico on April 13.
PMHD plans to go back to those communities in six months to provide an update on the steps they have taken to address the concerns previously shared and what will be part of future plans.