A roomful of union members and families of residents of El Camino Hospital’s subacute care unit talked to the hospital board of directors and local media last week about what they characterized as “eviction notices,” asking hospital officials to rescind the decision to phase out care for patients who are so dependent on the subacute services that they must live in the unit.
The decision to phase out the unit over a three-year period was made by hospital administrators, not by the hospital board of directors. Because the topic was not on the agenda, directors could not discuss or take action on it, but they did listen to public complaints.
Dawn Dunn asked directors in the Jan. 11 meeting to move the subacute unit to the new hospital building, expected to be ready January 2009. She told them that her husband, Kevin, has been a resident of the subacute unit for the past seven years.
“He has the same disability the actor Christopher Reeve had,” she said, “and we’ve been told he has to be out by 2007. He’ll have to go to a convalescent home, and he’ll die there – the care isn’t good enough.”
Others accused hospital officials of sending patients away to die. Just as vocal were the workers whose jobs will disappear
as patients leave. Forty-one certified nursing assistants will be displaced by the unit’s closure. Union leaders have accused the hospital of caring more about profit than about patient care and have claimed that all but one resident of the subacute unit is a Medi-Cal patient.
Jon Friedenberg, vice president of strategy and external relations, said Friday that “more than one” patient has private coverage and several have both Medi-Cal and supplemental insurance.
In Wednesday’s meeting, neurologist Susan Hansen said, “The subacute unit was a financial benefit to the hospital a few years ago, but it isn’t a financial benefit now.” Hansen does not work in the subacute unit.
Friedenberg said the hospital anticipates finding other jobs for the displaced workers in the course of the phaseout. “The hospital has a strong track record of working with employees in positions like this to find new work opportunities in the hospital. We are committed to doing the same with the employees affected by this decision as well,” he said Friday.
In the meeting, Diana Russell, a registered nurse and vice president of patient care services, repeated her clarification of her Dec. 12 letter to residents’ families: The phaseout began this month and continues until the new hospital opens, and staff is working with families to find appropriate facilities. She said later that five patients had left the unit as of last Thursday.
Russell said the impetus for sending the letter in December was to give patients a good shot at the 38 certified subacute beds that recently became available at Amberwood Gardens in San Jose.
“It’s very unusual to have that many beds become available,” she said. “We didn’t want them to miss the opportunity because they were not aware of our plans.” The county health department approved the phaseout plan in November, she said.
