A three-year journey toward sustainable health care in the Imperial Valley took a significant step forward Monday as officials celebrated El Centro Regional Medical Center joining the Imperial Valley Healthcare District, an organization backed by the governor, Legislature and UC San Diego.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 918 into law on Oct. 10, 2023, incorporating the assets of Pioneers Health Center in Brawley and Heffernan’s urgent care clinic in Calexico into a single entity that spans Imperial County. The El Centro City Council unanimously approved the transfer of El Centro Regional’s assets to the Imperial Valley Healthcare District last week.
Now that the health care infrastructure is consolidated, Imperial County voters are being asked to commit to a more significant level of financial support. Measure N, which will appear on the November ballot, needs supermajority support to levy a $111-per-property parcel tax countywide. Like many hospitals serving rural areas, El Centro Regional has struggled to survive in a health care market that has seen expenses for labor and supplies increase every year. In 2023, the medical center pursued consolidation after nearly running through its financial reserves.
San Diego County residents might wonder how this situation intersects with their interests.
Patricia Maysent, UC San Diego Health’s chief executive officer, said in an interview last week that everyone should realize that the interconnected nature of healthcare means that losing a hospital would have far-reaching effects.
Helping existing providers band together, she said, creates a sort of critical mass that can make more services viable than might otherwise be the case.
“There has been a ton of work with the state and the governor’s office wanting to see this happen so that we can finally get enough scale to try to keep health care open there and not just open, but to grow the clinical infrastructure,” Maysent said.
Her connection to El Centro Regional Medical Center started in 2016 when Maysent joined the hospital’s board of trustees. That move occurred after the medical center and the university cemented a clinical affiliation agreement that sent university specialists east for consultations or extended expertise through telemedicine.
Having made the drive out to El Centro many times, Maysent said she couldn’t help but understand that having a full complement of healthcare resources east of the Laguna Mountains is essential. Cancer care, she said, is a good example.
“Right now, if you need to have radiation or infusion, you have to come over the mountain,” Maysent said.
She said the newly merged Imperial Valley district, said to represent more than 180,000 Imperial Valley residents, can help justify deeper investment.
“We’re trying to create a model that the rest of the state can learn from about how we can come together,” Maysent. “This is not an economic play (for UCSD), but it’s a public health community service.
“We have to make sure healthcare stays close to home and can be sustained over the long term, despite all of the federal hits that everyone is taking.”
Already, UCSD and Imperial County medical providers have collaborated on several initiatives, including a psychiatric residency program, paid for with a $2.5 million state grant, that was announced in 2025.