The UC Irvine Health Department of Emergency Medicine is pleased to announce that it began providing emergency room services at Catalina Island Medical Center in Avalon starting Thursday, Sept. 1.
The agreement calls for round-the-clock daily high-level emergency and urgent care evaluation services for 4,500 Catalina Island residents and more than 1 million annual visitors.
The UC Irvine Health Department of Emergency Medicine is pleased to announce that it began providing emergency room services at Catalina Island Medical Center in Avalon starting Thursday, Sept. 1.
The agreement calls for round-the-clock daily high-level emergency and urgent care evaluation services for 4,500 Catalina Island residents and more than 1 million annual visitors.
“We are very excited about this collaboration with CIMC and to serve the community and visitors of Catalina Island for their urgent and emergency care needs,” said Erik Barton, MD, chairman of the UC Irvine Health Department of Emergency Medicine.
Catalina Island Medical Center’s emergency room treats more than 1,900 patients annually and is the island’s only source of complete emergency medical services.
“Working with UC Irvine Health raises the level and quality of care available to our community,” said Jason Paret, CEO of Catalina Island Medical Center. Paret joined CIMC in January 2016. “As the hospital for Avalon and the island, it’s important that we provide continuity of care for the community. Working with UC Irvine Health will allow our primary care physicians to work only in the clinic and not have to cover the Emergency Department.”
Paret said the recent recruitment of family medicine physician Dr. Aimee Warren, in the clinic, and the commitment of UC Irvine Health, in the emergency room, will strengthen the quality of care provided at Catalina Island Medical Center.
“This arrangement with Catalina is just the first step of a potentially larger outreach effort by UC Irvine Health to expand telemedicine services, specialty consultations and strategic growth of outreach opportunities,” Barton said.
Catalina Island Medical Center and its predecessor, Avalon Municipal Hospital, has provided medical care at 100 Falls Canyon Road, Avalon, since 1960. The original building featured six beds and could serve eight people at a time. Subsequent expansions added emergency and operating rooms, and laboratory, x-ray and observation rooms. In 1982, a new wing with patient rooms, a physical therapy room and administrative offices was built. In the mid 2000s, the hospital completely renovated the emergency and operating rooms and added new clinic exam rooms and space for physicians. It purchased a new CT scanner and began to offer telemedicine services to connect island patients to medical specialists on the mainland.
“Providing the highest quality of emergency and urgent care will be our goal at Catalina Island Medical Center” said Shahram Lotfipour, MD, vice chair for education and research, UC Irvine Health Department of Emergency Medicine, and newly appointed medical director for the emergency room at Catalina Island Medical Center.
UC Irvine Health Department of Emergency Medicine physicians and the emergency department staff at UC Irvine Medical Center receive nearly 50,000 patient visits annually and provide the backbone for Orange County’s emergency medical services. It is one of only eight in California designated as a “comprehensive emergency department” and has access to immediate consultation from 25 medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties. The department by far the most complete source of emergency care in the region.
Areas of special expertise include medical education, toxicology, emergency ultrasound, pediatric emergency medicine, infectious disease, public health/injury prevention, international emergency medicine, medical informatics, geriatric medicine and pre-hospital/disaster medicine.
