By Kate Day

Bazan

Emotions ran high at the El Camino Hospital District Board of Directors meeting last week when Diana Russell, vice president for patient care services, presented management’s recommendation to relocate some acute care services and close the subacute unit in December 2008.

Although family members, staff, union officials and representatives for state Assemblyman Ira Ruskin and Assemblywoman Sally Leiber pleaded with the board to save the unit, the board voted unanimously for closure.

Hospital administrators announced the closure in a letter to patients and their families last December. Many of the patients have already left the unit, leaving 22 remaining patients and 70 staff members. The board originally had declined to hold a public meeting to discuss the closure.

Russell said current capacity constraints in acute services cause delays and cancellations. Projected increases in emergency and surgical admissions meant the hospital could not meet the community’s future acute care needs, she said. One subacute bed could serve 83 in-patients in a year, she added.

“You want to send my wife to die,” said Sunnyvale resident Victor Bazan, whose wife has been a subacute patient for six years. “The community needs this unit. We voted for you - you need to be accountable to the people.”

Dawn Dunn, wife of a quadriplegic patient, said she had

contacted other local units and none could provide as good a service as El Camino Hospital. She broke down as she read a statement by patient Susan Pelkey, who communicates by blinking. “We were once just like you,” the statement read. “You never think it’ll happen to you.”

“I’m here to fight for patients who can’t speak for themselves,” said Hermelita Young, a certified nursing assistant who has worked on the unit for seven years. She said she didn’t know if she would keep her job once the unit closes.

Tammy Buckles, clinical lab scientist and chief steward for employees, had a heated discussion with board chairman Dr. Edward Bough over the three-minute-per-person limit on public comment. Buckles said the hospital had misled the public because the subacute unit was part of the hospital when voters passed a $148 million bond measure for construction work in November 2003. “This is one more example of the hospital’s unaccountability,” she said.

Eric Schwimmer, a representative from the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Local 715, accused the hospital of evicting the poor to make way for the well-insured. The hospital had not provided any charity care for at least five years despite “exceptional” profits, he said.

“I maintain that medical and surgical services are also provided for the poor,” said director Wes Alles. Jon Friedenberg, president of the hospital foundation, said the hospital invested $32,194,165 in community benefit last year.

All the directors said the decision to close the unit had been very difficult. “This is the most onerous, difficult situation,” said board member Mark O’Connor. “I hurt. I physically hurt.”

“We have to meet our charter of providing the community with acute care,” said board vice chairman David Reeder. He said the hospital was trying to build up financial strength against debt that would be incurred once the bonds for construction work were issued. “We may not agree, but this board is willing to listen to the community. I just don’t see how we can do everything,” he said.

After the meeting, Reeder broke down as he admitted patients would not get the same standard of care anywhere else.

Bough said there was nothing families and staff could have said to make him vote against closing the unit. “I’ve met with these people privately and personally. This has been talked about over a five- to six-month period,” he said.

“Government has abandoned these people, not El Camino Hospital. Nobody has stepped up to provide subacute care,” Bough said. “We have a crummy medical system where some people are uninsured and Medi-Cal provides a second standard of care.”