Unrestricted Giving: Powering Impact Where It’s Needed Most
At El Camino Health, unrestricted donations to El Camino Health Foundation are a powerful force for good—providing flexible funding that allows our health system to respond swiftly to emerging needs, close critical resource gaps, and invest in innovative programs that enhance patient care and staff well-being. From nurse training to new diagnostic services to patient and employee well-being initiatives, unrestricted giving supports programs that often fall outside traditional funding models—but make a profound difference in the lives of patients and families every day.
Below are just a few examples of the programs that your unrestricted gifts are making possible in the most recent funding cycle. Unrestricted grants awarded by the Foundation totaled more than $770,000, thanks to your generosity.
Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) Review Course
El Camino Health’s emergency departments are striving to increase national certifications for nurses, a benchmark of clinical excellence. Unrestricted grants will support the offering of a review course for the Certified Emergency Nurse designation at no cost to participants, which will support El Camino Health nurses in achieving advanced certification. This offering will help reinforce El Camino Health’s culture of clinical excellence, as well as encourage career advancement and retention of the nurses who are so vital to patient care and safety.
Cardiac Training for Oncology Nurses
The 52 nurses on the Medical-Surgical Oncology Unit frequently manage complex cancer cases—but are currently limited in responding to heart concerns, and instead transfer patients to telemetry units for cardiac assessment and monitoring. An internal survey showed that over 90% of nurses in this unit would voluntarily participate in cardiac training, if offered, so the Foundation responded. Unrestricted dollars will make possible basic EKG training (a test to check a patient’s heartbeat) for oncology nurses so that they can respond faster to cardiac events, reducing disruptive patient transfers and increasing continuity of care.
Expanded Neurodiagnostic Services
Today, regional wait times for a common outpatient brain activity monitoring test (aEEG) average 6-8 weeks, forcing patients and families to seek the important diagnostic test outside the community and wait for weeks for the results that help inform diagnosis and treatment plans. This testing has been unavailable at El Camino Health facilities, until now. With unrestricted dollars, El Camino Health will acquire its first EEG machine for outpatient testing, enabling faster access to vital neurological testing and diagnoses without an overnight stay. The machine has the potential to serve hundreds of patients annually in our community across neurology, maternal-fetal medicine, and neonatology, and will close a critical care gap in the South Bay.
CALM Team Expansion
The CALM team at El Camino Health provides proactive, trauma-informed response to patients in psychiatric distress. Unfortunately, this is a rising need in our community: In 2024 alone, the CALM team responded to hundreds of behavioral emergencies, and El Camino Health has seen hospital-wide growth driven by substance abuse, mental illness, and patient confusion. The CALM approach uses de-escalation techniques to decrease reliance on security interventions and increase patient and employee safety. Unrestricted dollars will expand instructor-led CALM training and provide additional CALM team member presence in our hospitals during evenings, nights and weekends.
Suicide Prevention Training for Clinical Staff
The number of suicide-related events in the El Camino Health patient population has shown a concerning increase in recent years. To address this, unrestricted funds will make possible training for more than 100 clinicians to help them better identify and more quickly address suicide risk in patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Based on the documented effectiveness of the Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE) method used in this training, clinicians will have greater confidence in performing suicide risk assessments and increase their ability to intervene earlier, improving safety and saving lives.
Healing Arts Program
Through the presence of four professional musicians (three guitarists and one harpist/pianist), the Healing Arts Program brings calm and comfort to patients and families at the Mountain View and Los Gatos campuses. Thanks to perennial support through unrestricted funding from the Foundation, musicians perform each week in public spaces and patient rooms across multiple units, reaching dozens of patients daily, and helping lower stress and anxiety levels. Music therapy has shown to offer psychological and physiological benefits as a complement to traditional care, and can support recovery for oncology patients, ICU patients, and palliative care populations.
Hospitality Volunteer Program
The Hospitality Volunteer Program led by the El Camino Health Auxiliary ensures new patients and visitors receive warm welcomes and personal guidance—enhancing the patient experience from the moment they walk in. Each year, volunteers serve hundreds of hours supporting families and guests at our Mountain View campus. Now, unrestricted funding will support the expansion of this program to the Los Gatos campus, and support training, uniforms, and meal stipends for 64 new volunteers.
Employee Mentorship and Professional Development Program
This new program will focus on the personal and professional growth of El Camino Health employees. Impacting up to 600 employees, the program will offer structured mentorship pairings, leadership development workshops, and peer coaching, with a goal of increasing satisfaction and retention of our El Camino Health employees, the skilled professionals who deliver world-class care to our community every day.
We invite you to make your next gift unrestricted—and help us respond with compassion, creativity, and excellence, wherever the need is greatest.
Published: July 2025
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