Hospital board seeking applications for vacant seat

District Board members are eligible to receive stock options from hospital vendors along with administration. Contracts are no bid and done in secret. Curatola clarified this after previous CEO received stock options from hospital vendor Sensitron and the Board approved.

The El Camino Hospital District Board investigated Curatola and Chairman Ed Bough for conflicts of interest in 2006. They did not release the results of the investigation.

I wonder if the District Attorney has looked at Curatola's lease agreement in the new hospital Melchor Office Building. Conflict of interest? Board member leasing space from hospital? Hummmm?

I wonder why a director would resign so suddenly with almost two years left in his term? On the face of it, it sounds very suspicious. Could there be perhaps a reason why Curatola resigned other than he wants to put energy in his practice? Come on Curatola, tell the truth, if you can!

I've known Curatola for years and I don't believe anything he says. Ed Bough is another Board Member who was investigated by the Board for conflicts of interest. In March 2006, "the issue began when (another Board Member David) Reeder delivered a PowerPoint presentation on a potential conflict of interest involving the purchase of two new, advanced 64-slice CT scanners by both El Camino Hospital and board chair Edward Bough's cardiology group, CVI Medical Group -- the implication being that Bough is competing with the hospital he represents, and should have disclosed his purchase earlier." Perhaps Chairman Bough should resign also!

The El Camino Hospital District Board has been dysfunctional and dishonest for many years. Most of this has to do with the financial situation of administration, board members, and the hospital itself. When it is convenient and necessary to tap the taxpayers for funding, the Board says the hospital is community owned. When requests for information are received, the Board says the hospital is a private, non-profit, which received a special exemption from the IRS so no financial information needed to be shared. They allowed Lee Domanico, the previous CEO, to release an untruthful accounting of his compensation without saying anything about it. The whole Board has been complicit in this. Some of the Board members are currently tenants in hospital buildings, an inherent conflict of interest. The hospital also advertises the practices of the two physician Board members. It has not been released whether the physicians have reimbursed the hospital.

Curatola, Bough, and O'Connor approved a large payment to the Mountain View Voice, which sued to get public information from the community owned hospital and the publicly elected Board. The newspaper had to sue the Board to get the release of legally required salary information on CEO Lee Domanico. The Board thought they could stonewall and refuse the request. They were wrong.

We hope Patricia Briggs, RN and head of PRN is appointed to the District Board. She would be better than any physician. The physicians on the Board have been using their positions as a personal candy store to get more money for their practices, and block competition from coming to El Camino. Lee Domanico was using his position to get money from Sensitron and probably other companies, all enabled by the Board. Why are we still using the Vocera system? Payments to someone?

Does anyone know why Board Member David Reeder dropped his investigation of Curatola and Bough? I don't see how they can function in any independent capacity. They are using their positions to vote against issues that might negatively impact their practices, in spite of being good for the hospital they serve. Take Bough's 64-slice CT scanner in his office. This directly takes business away from the Hospital's scanner which is a few hundred feet away. This is costly for the community, but lucrative for Bough.

Concerned wrote:

Does anyone know how many employees are going to be laid off at El Camino Hospital in a few months when Camino Medical Group opens their own surgery center? Just wondering if I should start making plans now to work there. This place is a mess.

Are you talking about the Hospital OR or the SurgeCenter or both? There is a lot of fear here about our jobs. Why no information from the administration or Board? I know it won't affect them!

These posts are hilarious. Who knew a community owned hospital could be run by a bunch of clowns?

Bough needs to remove himself from the Board soon! His leadership is a disaster for the hospital. David Reeder should be made interim Chairman. He's the only honest one on the Board. O'Connor has too much baggage. Alles doesn't know much.

The pharmacy was a disaster in summer of 2006. There were many medication errors, and the administration and Board were very slow to act. At least one patient was saved by the inspectors from the CMS who discovered an incorrect medication error that had gone unnoticed for days. Buzz among California pharmacists is that it was a disaster. Doctors and nurses were unhappy. The response of the Board and CEO - nothing.

Does anyone know if Curatola and Bough have any criminal liability for their actions on the Board? How about them returning the money that Sensitron paid to Domanico to sign the contract? They need to be held accountable.

You're right. Bough must resign too. Physicians have an inherent conflict of interest in serving on the Board. Their interests are not the same as the hospital's. Getting Bough off the Board will be good for the hospital and public. Hopefully, the hospital will survive the massively expensive rebuilding project.

We could always count on Curatola to help confuse the public with his nonsensical and dishonest answers to questions from the media. He has always had a difficult time grasping simple concepts like honesty and integrity. Curatola, Bough, O'Connor, and Alles have never met the minimal standards for honesty in a publicly elected District Board.

In a survey, both Bough and Curatola had many complaints from medical personnel. They were specifically noted to be untrustworthy and dishonest by many respondents.

El Camino Hospital is very similar to Redding Medical Center which had serious problems. There, the cardiologists and surgeons were doing plenty of unnecessary procedures and surgeries. There were numerous complaints, but the medical staff did nothing. The administration did nothing. The Board did nothing. It took a whistleblower patient who had unnecessary surgery to finally call in the FBI. It's lucky for El Camino Hospital that the press and FBI haven't been called. It's easy to see why the El Camino Board would do nothing, as Bough and Curatola are both cardiologists. Hopefully, the remainder of the Board will do something, but based on their history, that is unlikely. Maybe a whistleblower patient or employee can call in the press or FBI.

Heart Patient wrote:

I heard El Camino was going to stop doing heart surgery. What's going on?

Does anyone know who is talking about El Camino stopping surgery?

It's impossible to get truthful information out of the hospital. Check with the surgeon himself, but I doubt he'll respond. Curatola is a master of deception, deceipt, and dishonesty. Bough, O'Connor, Alles, and Graham are no different. There is a culture of dishonesty at El Camino, and has been that way for years.