Susie Dauto is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and day-care owner. As a longtime resident of Desert Hot Springs, there’s been one constant in how she and her family get health care: They have to leave town.
“Me and my family, we have to go out of Desert Hot Springs for all our health needs, whether it’s to Palm Springs, Palm Desert (or) Loma Linda,” she said. “As a mom, as a grandma, as a great-grandma, that’s always on my mind. What if there’s a crisis? What do we do?”
Dauto was one of about two dozen Desert Hot Springs residents who attended a Desert Healthcare District and Foundation community meeting in mid-February. It was one of seven “community listening sessions” the district held to shape its next strategic plan.
Attendees ranged from residents who moved to Desert Hot Springs just a year ago to those who’ve been in the city for 31 years. Some gathered as part of volunteer efforts with housing advocacy organization Lift to Rise. The meeting also included DHCD staff members and Riverside County District 4 Supervisor V. Manuel Perez.
During more than an hour of public comment, one clear theme emerged: The community doesn’t have enough providers to meet local health needs. That’s backed up by state and federal data sources: Many parts of the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas are federally designated Medically Underserved Areas, a recognition that there aren’t enough providers to serve the existing population.
DHCD Zone 2 Board Member Carole Rogers, who represents parts of Desert Hot Springs and other northern valley communities, noted the presence of the Desert Hot Springs Community Health Center, operated by DAP Health. But it’s open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays—meaning that working parents may struggle to bring themselves or their kids in. She also said it’s short-staffed to the point that people can’t get appointments when they need them.
“I called our community health center on Pearson Street just to get some information and ask them about access to primary care,” she said. “I asked, ‘What’s your waiting time to get an appointment?’ Two months.”
One resident said her family travels to Mexicali to get health care, because it takes less time than waiting for appointments locally. Another said she traveled back home to the Dominican Republic.
Dauto and her fellow residents talked about how difficult it is to find providers and access health care in a timely manner, which sometimes means driving across the valley—or beyond. One resident said her family travels to Mexicali to get health care, because it takes less time than waiting for appointments locally. Another said she traveled back home to the Dominican Republic.
Dauto has a grandson with cancer who needs to go to Loma Linda for MRIs and radiation treatments, and she said she worries what would happen if the family was unable to leave town due to road closures.
Susan Cabeje, a longtime Desert Hot Springs resident, said she was also concerned about the lack of facilities in the area—especially in the case of an earthquake or flooding that closed main roads. “If they close Gene Autry, and if we cannot have access to the hospital … (we need to) establish a place over here we can have, in case of an emergency,” she said.
Workforce development is one of four key areas that the DHCD is focusing on in its strategic plan, which is set to be completed and adopted by the board later this year. Other core areas include awareness and access, engagement and data-driven decision-making.
The district has invested more than $100 million into community health since 1998, and recently launched more efforts to invest in health-care education. The latest annual report shows the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation has supported four organizations that give out scholarships for students pursuing health care-related careers: OneFuture Coachella Valley, the Reynaldo J. Carreon MD Foundation, the Rotary Club of Palm Desert Foundation and the Theresa A. Mike Scholarship Foundation.
Sophie Blondeau, chief strategy officer with Sowen—the consulting firm the district hired to help with the listening sessions—said potential solutions to the workforce problem could be supporting a pediatric residency program, offering scholarships to pay for health-care-related training, peer support programs to help with health-care professional retention, and providing relocation funding so people can afford to live near where they work.
Jana Trew, a resident who operates social-service programs in Desert Hot Springs and Riverside, said the issue with workforce development isn’t about attracting people to the field, but making sure they can afford to live near where they work or pay for child care.
“There are barriers, and many of them are about how you keep people on the job,” Trew said. “People genuinely want to do this work and be helpful. But if they have to choose between affordability—whether that’s housing or, frankly, food—it becomes much harder to stay.”
The Desert Healthcare District is asking residents to take a short survey that helps identify community health and wellness priorities as part of the process to develop its strategic plan. Take the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/V6BBXQK.