Beginning in August, Yuma (Ariz.) Regional Medical will supply La Paz Regional Hospital in Parker, Ariz., with staffing support in the form of hospitalist physicians and emergency care staff, according to an article published in the Yuma Sun.
Staff will complete rotations at both hospitals, according to the report.
According to Ricci Sanchez, a vice president at YRMC, one of the primary motivations driving the collaboration was to limit the number of patients being transferred out of La Paz. Mr. Sanchez told the Sun La Paz hospital wanted to "keep patients there and allow them to be treated if at all possible in the community where their family members can visit them and they can feel like they are closer to home."
Mr. Sanchez added that the collaboration is also a boon for YRMC as it will facilitate the growth of the hospital's residency program. "It really enriches their [residents'] experience because they are not only going to be able to work in the hospital in Yuma but they get to see a different community with perhaps a whole different set of different types of medical conditions," Mr. Sanchez told the Sun.
Another likely motivator for La Paz was that their in-patient unit and their emergency room were being staffed by an outside staffing company.
According to the Sun, Norm Simpson, the La Paz board chair, said, "When the board of directors elected to pursue a new physician group to staff our emergency department, it was easy to see how our two hospitals could team up. Yuma Regional shares our not-for-profit mission and Yuma Regional has been our go-to hospital for years."
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