Mountain View, CA - June 16, 2011 - El Camino Hospital District (ECHD) announced that it has received and preliminarily reviewed the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report released today entitled, "El Camino Hospital District." ECHD respects the role of the Civil Grand Jury and will give due consideration to the findings and recommendations in the report.
The ECHD is a public agency that prides itself on efficiently and transparently providing services to accomplish its basic mission: providing medical facilities and health service assistance for the benefit of the District and the people served by the District. Among other services to the community, ECHD provides an ongoing and robust Community Benefits Plan that funds a range of programs, from free health clinics and school nursing services to vaccinations and dental health.
The focus of the report is on the use of District funds and whether the District made expenditures or is providing health care services outside of its service area, specifically in relation to the purchase of Community Hospital Los Gatos. Recently, the Santa Clara County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) staff completed an independent review that initially concluded no District funds were spent on this acquisition or operations and therefore the District is not providing services outside its boundaries.
The ECHD is a vigilant steward of the public money it receives. The ECHD Board ensures that District funds are expended for the benefit of the District and the people served by the District. However, El Camino Hospital, which is a nonprofit corporation and a separate legal entity from the District, serves the larger community.
"We appreciate the report's acknowledgement of the commitment of the ECHD Board members and the success of the El Camino Hospital and, while we disagree with some of the report's other statements, we welcome the opportunity to continuously improve our processes and communications," stated John Zoglin, Chairman of the ECHD Board of Directors. "We want to ensure that the community fully understands and appreciates the range of services provided by the District with the taxes received, because our approach is critical to providing quality health services to the community we serve."
About the El Camino Hospital District
The ECHD was established by voter approval in 1956 in accordance with California's Local Hospital District Law. ECHD oversees and approves ECHD tax-dollar expenditures, including expenditures for the Community Benefit Plan, which provides critical health services to the underserved. All ECHD tax-dollar expenditures are reviewed and approved at regular meetings of the District Board, which are open to the public.
ECHD's independently audited financials are certified each year by a third party accounting firm in compliance with standard, legal accounting practices. All District and Hospital Board meetings are publicly noticed, open to the public and video-taped. All of this information is available for public review on the El Camino Hospital website.