El Camino: An opportunity for openness

It seems the question of public access at El Camino Hospital isn’t going away with the release of CEO Lee Domanico’s financial information.

If anything, it’s fueled further requests for the public hospital to come clean on other information, from revealing salaries of other key executives to detailing how funds will be allocated for construction of the new hospital tower.

Some hospital officials have dismissed such requests as coming from a minority of frustrated doctors who see their standard of living going down amid the sky-high cost of living in Silicon Valley. Such information requests also became more prominent after a group of longtime anesthesiologists left the hospital under acrimonious circumstances.

But the local Leagues of Women Voters, which traditionally have been careful about taking sides in controversial matters, have entered the fray, agreeing with some insiders that the hospital has been less than forthcoming with how the money is spent.

The Mountain View-Los Altos league has had an observer at district board meetings, noting little is made known to the public about hospital operations and that most business is conducted in closed sessions.

The league drafted a letter to the hospital district board last week, requesting hospital representatives meet with community members to “discuss the manner, form and content of the financial and operating information disclosed to the public … and to identify any further or different information that should be disclosed to ensure maximum transparency and to facilitate oversight.”

The public only recently reaffirmed its commitment to El Camino when it voted to give another $148 million to fund new hospital construction under 2003’s Measure D. Surely, hospital officials should feel obligated to discuss what other kinds of hospital information can be made public. We’re encouraged to hear board president Mark O’Connor say the board wants to work with the public.

El Camino was built with public funding in the first place. The hospital has long enjoyed a strong relationship with the communities it serves. But since the integrated delivery system fiasco of the mid-1990s, the hospital hasn’t quite recovered from the privatizing philosophies of that era. The board did a great job to re-establish the public hospital, but it kept a 501(c)(3) designation which allowed hospital administrators to keep salaries hidden.

The board is saying the hospital will file IRS 990 forms from this point forward, forms that reveal the salaries of top executives. But apparently, more needs to be done.

We’ve heard hospital officials say they have nothing to hide. Here is an opportunity to prove it.