Bedside Manner

Lauren Do writes about the Hospital Board this AM.  I wanted to make sure that I had something up for any visitors so here is a post I wrote after June's meeting where the District budget was approved.

Should the Board Majority and Deborah Stebbins Resign?

My tentative answer is yes.

1.  The ability of the Board and management to execute on a budget has been dismal over the past six years. (a cumulative 9 million miss from projected budget.)
2. The Hospital is not compliant with regulations issued by OSHPD.  This gives OSHPD the ability to shut down acute care services at any time.  A writ of mandate lawsuit could potentially accomplish the same thing.  This has been the case since 1/1/2002 preceding the present Board and management but not corrected by them.  (Confirmed with OSHPD legal counsel.  If I really wanted to turbocharge my efforts to shut down the Hospital then I would go to court for a writ of mandate.)
3.  The District is so short of cash that management is asking to borrow against the emergency line of credit from Bank of Alameda.  This and other borrowings are not compliant with the current covenants of these loans and so the covenants will have to be renegotiated or depend on the forbearance of the Bank in not calling the loans.
4.  The District's balance sheet is a disaster.  The major assets of property plant and equipment are overvalued on the balance sheet because the Hospital is subject to approximately 10,000,000 of seismic retrofit work for them to continue to be used in their current use.
5.  Management and the Board majority cannot point to one iota of evidence that the Hospital provides improved healthcare outcomes to Alamedans but confidently assert (misleadingly so) that such outcomes are indeed happening.

I don't really believe that either the Board majority or Stebbins will resign, but I don't think any informed observer should have any confidence in their leadership.  (Now understand there are plenty of uninformed observers who will disagree, but I am willing to offer a free cup of coffee to any knowledgeable person who wants to argue with me.)

P.S.  Given her past behavior, I fully expected the post (which I knew would be coming at some point) to be a "hit piece".  Anyone who knows her blog, knows what I am talking about.  This is relatively benign by Lauren's standards.  Color me pleasantly surprised.