Improvements to Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe cited

Eight months after it took over temporary management of Palo Verde in Blythe, the Riverside University Health System Medical Center and Clinics is claiming progress in its effort to stabilize and upgrade the High Desert medical center.

Since Feb. 23, the hospital has been operating under a management agreement approved by Riverside County and the Palo Verde Healthcare District, which oversees the hospital’s day-to-day operations.

When that agreement was reached, Palo Verde was within days of closing, having filed for bankruptcy in October 2025 after years of administrative mismanagement and financial problems.

That agreement, originally is scheduled to end Aug. 21, was extended to Nov. 21. The agreement includes an option for another three-month extension, to Feb, 19, but that has not happened.

RUHS presented its progress report at the Palo Verde Healthcare District’s Oct. 7 board meeting. That report stressed “clinical, operational, financial, and regulatory needs,” according to an RUHS statement.

Keeping the 51-bed hospital is vital because it has the only 24-hour emergency room in the Palo Verde Valley, a 190-square-mile area that runs parallel to the Colorado River in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Blythe is the only incorporated city in that territory, but it does include several unincorporated communities, including Ripley and Mesa Verde.

All three are in Riverside County.

“Riverside University Health System was brought in at a critical time with a clear objective, and the amount of work accomplished in a short period of time has been extraordinary,” said Jennifer Cruikshank, RUHS’ chief executive officer, in a statement. “The hospital’s immediate position is more stable today, and many of the foundational processes needed to support safe, reliable care have been rebuilt or strengthened.”

RUHS’s effort to stabilize Palo Verde have included:

• Passing the hospital’s DNV accreditation survey, which determines whether the hospital is providing safe and proper care. Based In Norway, DNV helps hospitals, healthcare systems, and medical device manufacturers worldwide comply with regulations and earn accreditations;
• Moving Palo Verde’s emergency department to Vituity Healthcare Physicians & Hospital Staffing. That brought 26 board-certified emergency physicians to the hospital, which allowed it to maintain its 24-hour emergency care;
• Reducing the average emergency department wait from 42 minutes to 12 and a half minutes;
• Staffing the emergency department without travel nurses, something Palo Verde hasn’t done in more than a decade. A travel nurse works on a short-term contract at a short-staffed hospital or other healthcare facility;
• Installation of a new roof, and repairing the hospital’s cooling and backup power systems. Since February, RUHS has completed 21 renovation projects and has saved an estimated $250,000 by using its own staff instead of using contractors.

“When we looked department by department, the same needs showed up almost everywhere,” said Leah Patterson, RUHS’s chief nursing officer, in the statement. “Pharmacy, the lab, radiology and respiratory therapy each needed updated policies and reliable equipment.”

The report covered more than construction projects and physical improvements. It found that Palo Verde has an annual operating gap of $5 million to $10 million. It also has more than $20 million in potential liabilities.

RUHS has also helped secure the grants that has kept Palo Verde open: $3 million in state grants, $1.8 million in federal funding, $4.4 million from Riverside County’s general fund, a $330,000 bridge loan from Blythe, and a $4 million loan from Alleon Capital Partners, a New Jersey-based alternative lender that works with small- and medium-sized businesses that cannot get bank financing.

Through it all, Palo Verde has managed to perform. Since February, its emergency department has seen an average of about 30 patients a day, 27 percent compared with the same period in 2025.

RUHS has done everything it said it would do, according to Blythe Mayor Joseph DeConinck said.

“When they came on board, they told us they were going to get everything up to speed and fix all of the things that it takes to run a hospital,” DeConinck said. “I believe they have done a good job, and that they’ve got the hospital moving in the right direction.”

Palo Verde has been a staple in the High Desert since it opened in 1948. Today, it’s the only hospital-emergency room in California within 100 miles of Blythe, which makes keeping it open absolutely vital to that part of the High Desert.

Palo Verde’s financial problems can be traced to its losing Medicare and Medi-Cal payments, the result of computer problems within the hospital. Also, the state Department of Corrections did not compensate Palo Verde for treatment it provided at Ironwood State Prison, which has about 2,000 inmates and is 20 miles from Blythe.

At one point, Palo Verde was losing nearly $1 million a month because of the absence of payments from Medicare, Medi-Cal, and the corrections department. The hospital presented audited cost reports to all three entities, but its technical problem kept the payments from being made.

Ultimately, those issues were resolved and the emergency room remained open. That was always RUHS’s highest priority, according to Sandra Hudson, director of the health care district board.

“It was the only option,” said Hudson, a Blythe resident, earlier this year. “The board of supervisors had to keep the hospital open. If it hadn’t, the entire community would have been in bad shape.”

Hudson did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

The Palo Verde Healthcare District board is accepting proposals for the acquisition of Palo Verde, but board members have given no sign that they’re to finding an interested party.

“They’re still working on it,” DeConinck said, “They’re looking for anyone who’s qualified to come in and take over. We’re just trying to keep the momentum going, and get the rest of the hospital reopened.”