Repairs made, dialogue open despite delay in new building
By Kathleen Acuff, Town Crier Staff Writer
 El Camino Hospital undergoes a major face-lift expected to cost $339 million. |
A drive past Mountain View’s El Camino Hospital shows there’s some heavy lifting going on, but you can’t see it all from Grant Road.
Attorneys are battling a lawsuit that seeks to cancel the bonds for rebuilding the main hospital. Construction crews are replacing facilities not funded by those bonds as the hospital works to meet state seismic standards and accommodate new technologies. Directors are strengthening their communication with the public. In the midst of it all, doctors, nurses, lab technicians, aides and volunteers are outperforming comparable hospitals in patient care.
It’s all happening at a private 501c (3) corporation owned by a voter-established district. The public district board of directors appoints and controls the private hospital board. Jon Friedenberg, vice president for strategy and external relations for the hospital as well as president of the El Camino Hospital Foundation, said the district directors appointed themselves to the hospital board so that the Brown and Public Records acts would apply to the hospital board as they do to the district board.
All 1,700 full-time and 600 part-time employees work for the private, non-profit corporation - the hospital.
Patient care stands out
In spite of construction, lawsuits and public-access controversies, the hospital continued to win national awards over the past two years for patient care. In each case, El Camino was the only hospital west of the Mississippi among the finalists. In August, the hospital was named one of four finalists for the American Hospital Association McKesson Quest for Quality Prize. In 2004, it was named a “top performer” by the Commonwealth Fund.
The 650 physicians and 700 nurses on staff care for 200,000 patients a year, seeing 43,000 of them in the emergency department.
Friedenberg said, “We’re known for our superior nursing staff - we have half the turnover, half the vacancy rate of other hospitals. We have certain star employees who demand that everyone perform at a certain level. They will be retiring in five to 10 years, and we will try to recruit people we believe will become star performers themselves.”
To ensure that what goes into the new hospital building is as up-to-date as the exterior, the hospital has committed to raise $25 million to build a cancer center, install the latest medical imaging technology, buy furnishings and in other ways contribute to patient care. The five-year fund-raising campaign begun in May has netted $8 million so far. No funds from philanthropy will be used to pay construction costs, Friedenberg said.
Lawsuit delays hospital start
The lawsuit filed in April by Saratoga resident Aaron Katz, who owns property in Mountain View, seeks a ruling that the November 2003 election in which nearly 71 percent of voters approved Measure D should have been open to all citizens owning property in the voting area, which does not include Saratoga.
He originally sued four public districts in separate cases. The four suits were rolled into one by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kevin A. McKenney, who dismissed the case in June. Katz appealed; no ruling has been issued.
In effect, however, the suit has acted as a restraining order: Construction cannot proceed while the case is under appeal. The October groundbreaking for the new hospital has been postponed until March. Hospital officials estimate the cost of the delay at $2 million a month.
“We were very gratified when the Fifth Court of Appeals in Southern California recently issued a definitive ruling in an identical case against the plaintiff. We feel it strengthens an already strong case we have, and we think we will prevail. We’re hopeful that in the next 60 days we can get this appeal behind us and move forward,” Friedenberg said last month.
Nonbond construction goes up
Construction of the new hospital building, budgeted at $339 million, is required by the state seismic code enacted after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It will be paid for by Measure D general obligation bonds, which will cover $148 million of the costs, and by revenue bonds that the hospital will issue just before building.
Ken King, vice president of facilities services, said that while the Katz case is “the driver,” there are other reasons for the delay. The new hospital building will displace 300 parking spaces, so a parking garage is under construction; it should be ready for use in January. Before the new hospital can go up, the old Oak Pavilion must come down. The New Oak Pavilion going up on the southwest corner of the 41-acre campus at an estimated cost of $10.25 million is expected to be ready for its grand opening by late January. The dialysis center now in old Oak will relocate to New Oak. A medical office building, the Cypress Pavilion, is expected to be completed next July. The estimated cost of the Cypress Pavilion and the parking structure is $33.58 million.
Planning for all this activity began in 2001. In his office, nearly walled in by stacks of revised plans, King said, “Things change, our care needs change.” He added with a rueful laugh, “Before we move in, we’ll need to remodel.”
A “surgical demolition” - King’s description - will remove the old hospital within 18 months of the move into the new hospital, which should take place in January 2009. First, the North Addition of the current hospital must be renovated and hazardous material abated.
Whether the hospital is interested in acquiring the nearby “pumpkin patch” - the Paul and Anne Mardesich estate - remains speculation until directors are ready to discuss the matter in open session. Friedenberg and King both said they know nothing about a possible purchase of any or all of the 15-acre property on Grant Road at Levin Avenue.
Communication improves
Thanks in large part to the Los Altos-Mountain View Area League of Women Voters and the persistence of the local press, the public can hear a consultant’s report on executive compensation tonight in the regular meeting of the board of directors, scheduled to begin at 5:30. It wasn’t always so.
League President Ginny Lear said Friday that the watchdog group is pleased with the hospital’s response to its July request for open communication with the community and compliance with the Brown and Public Records acts.
She praised directors and administrators for the mid-November release of information about executive salaries and the chief executive officer’s most recent bonus, the appointment to the hospital’s construction advisory committee of three development and architectural professionals the League recommended, meeting agendas published in a timely manner and financial statements made easier for the public to understand.
“They understand that the community is interested in this and made an effort,” Lear said. “The League of Women Voters is very pleased with the progress between the hospital board and the community in openness and transparency.”
The communication issue heated up in the past year when directors fired the hospital’s longtime anesthesiology group and decided to build a medical office building in competition with nearby physician-owned office buildings.
“Certain of the physician-owners were very angry and looking for ways to criticize the hospital, and they picked up on the salary issue,” Friedenberg said.
“Compare the relative openness of this hospital with comparable hospitals in California and we’re 99 percent open. The public concern was mostly about salaries, so the board decided to provide more information about salaries.”
Friedenberg said executive salaries are determined in consultation with a market survey expert and are within the ranges for comparable hospitals.
“Mountain View has a hospital that is publicly owned, whose board of directors is elected by the voters, whose patient care is at the very, very highest level. If people want to throw stones, they should first take a reasonable look at the hospital’s performance,” he said.
