Special to the Town Crier
El Camino Hospital's interventional cardiology service is one of 100 national award winners for 1999, according to a national report issued in March.
Hospital administrator and chief executive officer Richard Warren announced the honor at the El Camino Hospital Board of Directors meeting April 14.
For the past five years, the Health Care Information Association, Inc. has identified the country's 100 top performing hospitals based on information in its detailed clinical database. El Camino Hospital was named to the list in 1993 and 1994.
This year, the association expanded the program to include a category for the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals.
To qualify, hospitals must have consistently good performance across six measures that indicate high-quality outcomes and efficient management of care.
There are nearly 700 hospitals across the country that provide cardiovascular services.
"We are extremely proud that El Camino Hospital has been recognized again for the outstanding care it provides," Warren said. "This study is a respected and objective measure of our performance."
Warren also told the board that the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals had given El Camino's laboratories the "highest rating possible."
Board members on April 14 approved an expenditure of $337,000 to replace aging hematology equipment and software.
Purchases will include a hematology analyzer, an automated slidemaker-stainer and computerized slide differential reader.
The differential reader "is a huge technological advance for us," Dr. John Collin, laboratory services medical director, told the board. "It will give more efficiency and (staff) savings when it's in place."
The hematology equipment the hospital is replacing is approximately 10 years old, Collin said.
According to Owen Aurelio, associate administrator, "This equipment project was budgeted on the current fiscal year 1998-99 fixed asset budget."
The April 14 meeting was the first for newly appointed board member David Reeder of Los Altos. Reeder was appointed by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to fill the seat formerly occupied by Dianna Adair, who chose not to run for another term. Reeder was sworn in at the meeting.
The board recognized outgoing board president Dr. Paul Hoar with a plaque.
"This should symbolize what this one individual did during such a painful period in our history," said board member Mark O'Connor in making the presentation. "Without his tenacious attitude, the doors of this hospital probably would have been shut."
Hoar was instrumental in the lawsuit that led to return of the hospital to the district in January 1997.
The hospital was transferred to a private 501(c)(3) corporation in 1992 as the first step in creating an integrated delivery system, an experiment that proved unsuccessful.