Castro Valley Forum

November 7, 2007

By Amy Sylvestri

The Eden Township Healthcare District held a public information meeting Monday night at the San Leandro Library to discuss the rebuilding of Eden Hospital and the future of San Leandro Hospital.

Sutter Health has recently pledged $300 million to rebuild Eden from the ground up and $20 million to keep San Leandro Hospital running in exchange for complete control of the board of directors.

The proposal has been met with opposition from some who feel that it goes against the 1997 voter-approved purchase of Eden by Sutter. At that time, it was decided that the board be made up of five publicly elected officials, five Sutter appointed members, and a CEO.

The proposed new board would operate in the manner of Sutter’s other hospitals, with no publicly elected officials, though Sutter said that they would look to appoint community members and any local individual is welcome to apply to serve on the board.

Eden spokeswoman Cassandra Phelps stressed that, even if the Eden Township District doesn’t retain control of the Eden board, the district would not disband completely and would still oversee things like grants Eden consultant Steve Hollis walked the crowd through the proposal Monday night, highlighting the potential changes in store for San Leandro Hospital.

“It’s never going to be gold mine,” said Hollis. “But the bar is set at break even. Obviously the more successful it is financially, the longer we’ll have the hospital.”

Hollis added that the board was excited about the new focus on the San Leandro campus. There were passionate speakers on both sides of the issue Monday night.

“I’ve lived in San Leandro 28 years,” said San Leandro Hospital employee B.J. Martin. “I want to thank them for recommitting to make San Leandro Hospital a success. Sutter has invested a lot in technological improvements and is committed to the future of San Leandro Hospital. Everyone needs to wake up to reality or come 2012, everyone in this room will either be looking for a job or health care outside of this community.”

Union members, including United Healthcare Workers-West member Emily Rich, objected to the way the proposed shift is being handled.

“The transaction must be overseen by the attorney general,” said Rich. “The voters were told in 1997 that the board would be joint and publicly (elected), so to change, it must be approved by the voters with all actions taken openly.”

Lisa King and Ronnie Bayduza, both San Leandro Hospital administrators, spoke in favor of Sutter’s buy-out, thanking Sutter for the technological improvements they’ve made at the facility in the past few years.

Carol Burazi, a nurse at the hospital, took issue with the potential shift from an acute care facility to one specializing in rehabilitation. “I’m concerned that Sutter doesn’t have a commitment to keeping an acute care facility in San Leandro past June 2008,” she said. Burazi added that Sutter has been counting San Leandro’s monthly losses of around $70,000 against it since last July, even though no new system is in place.

“Why has the tracking already started when you say we are losing money each month under this system?” asked Burazi. “It seems to me it tips the balance. It sounds like it’s a done deal and a blueprint for failure and I’m not comfortable with that at all.”

The discussion will continue with another meeting scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m. at Eden Hospital in Castro Valley.