The planned residents of these facilities will need emergency services. The patients are fighting substance abuse and will likely be receiving medical care during their stay. The perinatal facility will have patients dealing with pregnancy issues, as well as caring for up to 24 children. The likelihood of ambulance, police and fire calls to these commercial medical facilities is significantly higher than a typical residential owner.
This is a rural area, on narrow and dirt roads, that cannot be accessed quickly if challenging situations arise. These parcels are in the highest fire risk tier. One parcel is surrounded by thick brush Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land that could easily ignite a large area fire. There are no fire hydrants in the area and the closest fire department is in El Dorado Hills, over 5 miles away. Neighborhood experience suggests 20+ min for any emergency response, police or ambulance. The El Dorado County Sheriffs are already stretched thin across this county. Police response is delayed due to the remote location and conditions of the access roads.
The closest hospital is 10 miles away, and any ambulance must traverse the dangerous 1.5 miles of Deer Valley Road discussed here. Best case travel time to a hospital is 20 minutes, and as anyone who lives here knows, there is significant traffic backup on Green Valley Road and Bass Lake Road during commuting hours if an unfortunate patient needs care during those times.
We estimate a minimum of 40 minutes to get a patient to a hospital during a 911 emergency request. It will take at least 10 min for an ambulance to arrive at the facility, due to the lack of nearby services and the dangerous nature of Deer Valley Road. Assuming 10 minutes to triage the patient and get them into the ambulance, it is then another 20 minutes to the hospital. This is a best-case turnaround at 40 minutes. If the transport needs to happen during heavy traffic on Green Valley Road, this trip will be further delayed due to only two available lanes on Green Valley Road.
There is a reason this area is rural agricultural residential zoned. This is a bad location for patients as well as the existing community.
Some questions for our county and state leaders who are funding/approving this –
- How could anyone accept that two large medical facilities can be effectively served in this remote location?
- Is El Dorado County investing in more capabilities to service this large population increase in this rural part of the county?
- Does the El Dorado County Sheriff approve of this facility?
- Is the El Dorado County Sheriff funded to support the calls likely to be made from two very active mental health substance abuse facilities?
- Do the Rescue and El Dorado County Fire departments have the resources they need to support these facilities?
- Why would the State want to place patients into facilities that have delayed emergency services, putting those patients at higher risk, when every moment matters?
Rescue Deer Valley! 