Special to the Town Crier
The El Camino Hospital Board of Directors May 12 approved an expenditure of $5.95 million to complete the second phase of building upgrade projects.
The board committed $8.6 million toward a complete facilities upgrade in June 1998 for the Mountain View Hospital.
Ken King, director of facilities services for the hospital, told the board that the upgrades were necessitated, in part, by the deferral of routine maintenance while the hospital was part of an integrated delivery system from 1992-96. Several upgrades were required to receive accreditation.
"We should be at the end of the catch-up," King said. "By the end of this year we should be up to where we should have been four years ago."
The phase-two upgrades include an outlay of $2.1 million for remodel of the nearly 20-year old Oak Pavilion, including new computer space. The hospital's Patient Accounting Department will move to the second floor of the pavilion when the remodel is complete, freeing space it currently occupies in the hospital building to accommodate more hospital beds.
Also included is a $980,000 remodel of the hospital's first floor. King said the age and type of construction of the hospital building make it "the most difficult and expensive to remodel."
As required by California Administrative Code, the phase-two work will incorporate upgrades to accommodate individuals with disabilities.
King said that lighting upgrades included in the first-phase projects were complete. The more efficient lighting had resulted in an 11 percent reduction in electricity consumption over the past year and a 14 percent reduction in costs, exceeding budget expectations, he said.
Richard Warren, El Camino's administrator and chief executive officer, said the phase-one work had been completed "in record time." The hospital will be addressing seismic issues in the next millennium, he said.
Warren indicated that some upgrade projects had also been undertaken to reduce the number of Code Red hours - hours the hospital's emergency department was closed to ambulance traffic. Code Red hours have dropped dramatically, from approximately 1,150 in 1997 to fewer than 50 in 1999, the lowest number in five years.
The board also approved an $214,173 expenditure for a new fetal monitoring system. The new monitor is Y2K compatible and has a capacity for 24 patients, 10 more than the existing system.
Auxiliary re-evaluates
In the El Camino Hospital Auxiliary's annual report to the board, auxiliary president Karen Mosakowski said the group is facing staffing and management challenges.
Age and illness have required auxiliary members to drop out, she said. Additionally, "the high cost of living in the Bay area has also contributed to a decline in membership as members choose to relocate in search of lower expenses."
Membership recruitment is a common problem for auxiliaries nationwide, Mosakowski said. "More people remain in the work force, and more are raising grandchildren. The number of members involved in other activities and unwilling to work more than one 3-4-hour shift is increasing."
Mosakowski said the 40-year old auxiliary is also having difficulty recruiting individuals to serve on its board.
"With the shrinking volunteer labor pool, it will be necessary to reassess what the auxiliary does and how it does it. A reorganization of services will probably be necessary," she said.
The 890-member auxiliary donated 77,389 hours to El Camino Hospital during the first three quarters of its 1998-99 fiscal year. It has also funded $99,000 in hospital "wish list" items ranging from an ultrasound system to pagers for patients' families, plus more than $23,000 in scholarships.