On December 31, 2020, Redwood Coast Medical Services (RCMS) received a redesignation as an approved Alternative Emergency Medical Service (EMS) receiving facility for the Coastal Valley EMS Region.

This redesignation is important as it allows Coast Life Support District (CLSD) ambulance crews to continue to appropriately and safely transport patients to RCMS Urgent Care. Without this designation, ambulance crews would have to transport patients out of the area which takes the ambulance out of our community for the six-hour round trip. In order to receive the redesignation, RCMS has and will continue to maintain equipment, qualified staff and services to care for patients requiring emergency medical services.
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RCMS appreciates the efforts of our local partners in EMS services: CLSD ambulance services, Redwood Coast Fire Protection District, South Coast Volunteer Fire Department, North Sonoma Coast Fire Protection District, and Timber Cove Fire Protection District.

RCMS has no control or say on the priorities on who receives the COVID-19 vaccination, on the number of doses and when received, or on the vaccine type to be used.

The State of California and the County Health Departments control these decisions.

RCMS is taking proactive steps in having people sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination interest list to provide information that will place them into different priority tiers established by the State.

To sign up:
www.surveymonkey.com/r/KYGPTVS (English)
www.surveymonkey.com/r/RR7XJMN (Spanish)

This information will be used when Mendocino and Sonoma County Health Departments allocate the vaccines. As RCMS receives the vaccines it will schedule vaccination appointments using the lists generated from the links above.

As of today, RCMS has received 77 vaccine doses and all have been given to individuals in Tier 1a. RCMS has received no information on the number of doses it will receive in the future or when they will arrive.

As reported in the news, the United States is behind considerably in COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Your political representatives are the people to whom complaints on the process should be sent.

This is the current situation, but things are constantly changing as additional decisions are made at the State and County levels. We will keep the community informed. Thank you for your understanding.

In anticipation of rolling out COVID-19 vaccination in our service area, RCMS is putting together a list of people who are willing to get this vaccine. This list will be broken down by the priority tiers that State and County Public Health requires for vaccine distribution.

Availability of the vaccine, at this time, is totally controlled by the Public Health department. RCMS does not have the ability to directly obtain the vaccines – it must come through Public Health. When and how many vaccines will be provided to RCMS is decided by Public Health.

Having your name in the list helps distribution planning for the vaccine, but does not guarantee getting one.
If you have a family member, friend, or neighbor who would like to get on the vaccine interest list but does not have internet access to complete the survey, we are requesting that you help them register. 
Thank you for your patience as we roll out the vaccine to the community. 

Go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KYGPTVS to take the survey.
Aqui esta en espanol: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RR7XJMN

The RCMS Billing Department has moved to the Administrative Offices at the Elaine Jacob Center. To reach the billing office, please call (707) 884-9434 and select option 3. 

​Are you interested in becoming an EMT, Medical Assistant or First Responder?
A new class for Emergency Medical Technicians starts in January 2021. See flyer for details.

​RCMS has gained some capacity to do screening of asymptomatic patients (patients with no COVID-19 symptoms)  with possible COVID19 exposures.   

If you or a staff person in your business had a possible COVID19 exposure, but have no symptoms, we will be offering visits to test these people this Tuesday through Friday (December 15th through 18th) from 1pm to 5pm at the Gualala clinic. This service is by appointment only,  please call us at (707) 884-4005 to schedule an appointment.

Please note that these will be office visits, and patients will be signed in as patients and insurance will be billed.   

We will follow the orders of the Health Department regarding how patients need to proceed – with isolation or not, depending on the extent of their potential exposure.   

If the clinic gets too busy with symptomatic patients, or we run out of testing supplies, we may need to curtail this screening.  We will keep people updated.  

Thank you all for your patience in this challenging time. 

If you missed the live broadcast, you can catch the reply here: 
​https://m.soundcloud.com/kgua/rcms-covid-update-ara-chakarabarti-and-brb-britell-121120

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in our community, in the County and across the nation.
 
RCMS reminds all of our community members to continue with practices such as wearing a mask, physical distancing, regular handwashing, disinfecting high-touch surfaces, and avoid gatherings with those outside of your household. 
 
Asymptomatic Testing
 RCMS is working to bring asymptomatic testing (testing for people without any symptoms) events back to our community and are finalizing details with Mendocino County. We will inform the community as soon as dates and locations are set. In the meantime, you may schedule free asymptomatic testing at OptumServe in Ukiah or Santa Rosa via this link: 
https://lhi.care/covidtesting
 
Exposure to Someone Who Has Tested Positive
 If you have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, the Mendocino County Public Health Department guideline is that you should self-quarantine for 14 days. If you develop symptoms within those 14 days you will be tested as symptomatic patients. Otherwise, you can be tested on the 15th day to be cleared.
 
If You Are Experiencing Symptoms
 If you are experiencing COVID-19 related symptoms (i.e., fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste/smell, vomiting/diarrhea) please call RCMS to schedule an appointment (707) 884-4005.
 
This is a critical time in the pandemic and we need everyone to do their part to slow the spread of COVID-19. Be well and be safe. We are in this together and we will get through this together.