UC Irvine Health in Orange will provide emergency room services on Catalina Island beginning today.
Services for 4,500 island residents and 1 million annual visitors will be offered at Catalina Island Medical Center in Avalon through UCI Health’s Department of Emergency Medicine.
The agreement is part of UC Irvine Health’s expansion of telemedicine and specialty consultation services, said Dr. Erik Barton, who chairs the emergency medical department.
Catalina Island Medical Center Chief Executive Jason Paret, who joined the facility in January, said the deal lets its primary care physicians “work only in the clinic and not have to cover the emergency [room].”
Emergency room physicians and staff at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange see about 50,000 patients a year.
The emergency rooms at Catalina Island Medical Center, formerly Avalon Municipal Hospital, get about 1,900 patients a year.
