2 hospitals emptied in San Diego County

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

According to the state Department of Public Health, two hospitals were evacuated Monday in San Diego County: Pomerado Hospital, which has 236 licensed beds and is in Poway, and Fallbrook Hospital, a 140-bed facility in Fallbrook. None have been evacuated today.

Several hospitals, including Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, have been told today to ready plans for safely transferring patients.

“We have devised an evacuation plan,” said Stan Ziano, a spokesman for Scripps Health. “If we need to do that, we can move patients to other Scripps facilities.... We are OK capacity-wise.”

At least six nursing homes were evacuated, state officials said. These include Remington Club Health Center in San Diego, Villa Monte Vista in Poway, ManorCare Health Services-Rancho Bernardo in Poway and the skilled-nursing facility at Pomerado Hospital.

Some residents were taken to Qualcomm Stadium, others to the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The 103 nursing home patients at the Del Mar racetrack will be moved to nursing homes in Orange County as early as this afternoon, said Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the Center for Healthcare Quality at the state public health agency.

“It’s a very fluid environment,” Billingsley said. “There’s probably a lot of people preparing, and that’s a good, good thing.”

-- Charles Ornstein