By Town Crier Staff Report

The El Camino Hospital District Board of Directors authorized a survey of 600 district residents during the weekend of April 20-21 to gauge public interest in a number of issues important to the hospital, among them, whether there is enough public support to carry a bond measure to build a new hospital.

Hospital officials felt it “premature” to give results of the survey, but questions involved the level of willingness to support a bond issue if hospital officials decide to do it and the level of taxes at which people would be willing to support it.

The survey was conducted by Larry Tramutola of Oakland, who has led winning bond campaigns for both the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District and Los Altos School District.

Hospital spokeswoman Judy Twitchell said the board had the survey conducted to prepare for a retreat that took place April 27-28 with El Camino CEO Lee Domanico to discuss the hospital’s plans.

Twitchell said the survey showed “the public’s response to the hospital was very positive. Only police and fire (personnel) were rated more highly.”

Hospital officials plan to rebuild the main hospital building to comply with state seismic upgrade standards and to modernize facilities to meet changing medical technologies.

The new hospital would probably have fewer beds, approximately 300, and be surrounded by myriad outpatient services. Costs for the new hospital, estimated between $120 million and $200 million, could be paid from a host of options, including fund raising, borrowing the money or cash reserves.