El Centro, California - UC San Diego Health and the City of El Centro have entered the next phase of a comprehensive management services relationship with El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC). Under a new agreement, UC San Diego Health will provide strategic planning and management and consulting services to the ECRMC Board of Trustees and hospital leadership. UC San Diego Health and ERCMC will align administrative expertise, business and clinical initiatives with the goals of enhancing ECRMC’s ability to deliver high-quality, integrated and cost-effective care to patients in the Imperial Valley.

“With UC San Diego Health, we have a strong, strategic clinical and business partner that is committed to enhancing the availability of high-quality health care services in the Imperial Valley,” said Efrain Silva, El Centro City Councilmember. “The health of the community and the region is a shared priority. We expect to see great results through this collaboration.”

“As the health care landscape in California evolves, cooperation among hospitals to align and share expertise is critical to improving the delivery of care,” said Tomas Virgen, interim CEO, ECRMC. “With this arrangement, ECRMC maintains its independence while connecting with a health system that is nationally recognized for its clinical resources and expertise.”

ECRMC is affiliated with UC San Diego Health Care Network, a collective of health care providers including UC San Diego Health and faculty physicians, community hospitals, medical groups and physicians based in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties. Affiliates collaborate to co-develop systems, infrastructure, care pathways and quality initiatives to provide high-value health care for the benefit of patients, health plans and employers.

“Part of the mission of the region’s only academic health system is to share knowledge and to increase access to its unique expertise and care,” said Patty Maysent, interim CEO, UC San Diego Health. “With ECRMC becoming an affiliate of UC San Diego Health Care Network, we will support ECRMC in improving and enhancing service offerings for patients while connecting clinicians to learning opportunities through UC San Diego School of Medicine.”

If needed, patients of ECRMC will have access to tertiary and quaternary care services of UC San Diego Health. These services include highly specialized and advanced diagnostic, imaging, surgical, transplant, oncologic and cardiac services typically only found in academic health centers.

ECRMC and UC San Diego Health remain legally and financially independent and maintain separate hospital licenses. Employees of ECRMC remain employed by ECRMC. ECRMC will continue to be governed by its Board of Trustees, which consists of members of the El Centro City Council, local community members, a Chief Medical Officer (who will be a UC San Diego faculty physician) and an additional representative of UC San Diego Health. The Board will receive reports about the business, administrative and clinical operations and functions of ECRMC, including strategic plans and annual operating and capital budgets.

ECRMC is an acute-care medical center, serving the health care needs of the Imperial Valley since 1956. In addition to the 161-bed hospital, ECRMC also owns and operates the Oncology & Hematology of Imperial Valley, Wound Healing Center and outpatient clinics in El Centro and Calexico. The outpatient centers provide exceptional primary and specialty care for residents seeking enhanced wellbeing and improved quality of life.

UC San Diego Health, the region's only academic health system, has been ranked #1 in San Diego for five consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. Leapfrog Group has twice named UC San Diego Health to its annual list of Top Hospitals, a distinction given to select hospitals nationwide for demonstrating excellence in hospital safety and quality.

UC San Diego Health is comprised of UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest and Thornton Hospital, Moores Cancer Center (one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the country, and the first and only San Diego-based National Comprehensive Cancer Network® Member Institution), Shiley Eye Institute, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center and Jacobs Medical Center (opening 2016) in La Jolla, as well as other primary and specialty practices located throughout Southern California.