City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, and Local Health Authority Threaten to Take Over Emergency Room of Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center for Refusing to Test Potential COVID-19 Patients
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo announced on Monday, May 11, 2020 at a press conference that Maverick County, the City of Eagle Pass, and the Local Health Authority will take over the Emergency Room operations at the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center in Eagle Pass, Texas sometime this week due to complaints received from local residents who have gone to the Emergency Room with COVID-19 symptoms for testing, but were refused to be given a COVID-19 test.
Judge Saucedo stated that one person with COVID-19 symptoms went to the Emergency Room of the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center to be tested, but was declined and this person went on to test positive for COVID-19 and ended up infecting nine (9) other people with the deadly virus.
Judge Saucedo added that attorneys for Maverick County, City of Eagle Pass, and the Local Health Authority, Dr. Victoriano Valdez, are working to legally take over the operations and monitoring of the Emergency Room of Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center.
“We as an organization have done our best to make sure that people are tested the way they need to be. If there comes a time where we feel that any of the health organizations in our community are not doing their part and are refusing to do part of their job, the County along with the Local Health Authority, which includes Dr. Valdez, have the right to go in there and basically take over a facility and oversee it. Right now, unfortunately we as an organization find ourselves in that situation. Before we go out and crucify anybody, let me explain that it is not the Doctors and it is not the Nurses at this facility that are refusing to test individuals. This comes from higher ups, this comes from the corporation who at times have refused to support our efforts the way they are supposed to. So as of now, we have our attorneys doing what they need to do. Sometime this week, Maverick County and the City of Eagle Pass, along with our Local Health Authority, will be taking over it and monitoring the Emergency facility room at the Fort Duncan Medical Center. We have to do that to make sure that everybody gets tested if they have symptoms. I think it is unfortunate to have to bring it out here, but if somebody drops the ball it affects everybody. And there have been people from time to time who have been turned away. Right now, we are seeing a spread because one individual who is tied to all those nine people, I mean individuals, who have came out positive when that hospital had the opportunity to test them and that person was turned away,” said County Judge Saucedo.
Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center is a private hospital in Eagle Pass, Texas in Maverick County, which is owned and operated by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc. of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, one of the largest hospital management companies in the United States.
County Judge Saucedo noted that local authorities have been very positive, tolerant, and patient with Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center concerning the testing of possible COVID-19 individuals with symptoms, but corporate higher ups have not been cooperative with local authorities, requiring Maverick County, the City of Eagle Pass, and the Local Health Authority to take this measure.
