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Uploaded: Friday, August 26, 2011, 4:34 PM                                            
Updated: Monday, August 29, 2011, 1:22 PM

Hospital selects new chief
El Camino names Tomi Ryba president and CEO

by Nick Veronin
Mountain View Voice Staff

Posted by Duke, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2011 at 6:56 pm

I identify El Camino as a hospital with a "reputation of maximizing revenue by all means and providing exceptional net profits." The rest is, you know ...

Posted by Observer, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2011 at 7:10 pm

There's just nothing like a hospital in pursuit of revenue growth run by someone with no background in medicine. And once again there is no indication of her salary for running a public funded hospital. More of the same.

Posted by Finance Guy, a resident of another community, on Aug 27, 2011 at 12:12 pm

Per the article in Biz Journal at the following URL:

Web Link

"Ryba will have a base annual salary of $695,000, and will receive the hospital's standard bonus plan with a target of 20 percent and a maximum of 30 percent, said Board Chairman John Zoglin. Graham's base salary was $632,640."

Posted by Huh?, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Aug 27, 2011 at 12:14 pm

Gulp...

Posted by Confused, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 29, 2011 at 12:01 pm

We gave up Graham with 40 yrs+ of experince and top professional accreditations for someone who lists Jr League and Charity league as key points of experience? Looks likie she will make more than Graham too? The insanity of this board knows no bounds.

"Ryba was President of St. Mary Medical

Center in Long Beach, Calif., a member hospital of Catholic Healthcare West.

Prior to that, she served as COO of University of Washington`s Harborview

Medical Center. Ryba has had extensive experience in academic medicine and the

public sector including five years as Chief Executive Officer of Riverside

Regional Medical Center, an affiliate of Loma Linda University. She has been an

active community leader, serving as President of Alternatives to Domestic

Violence, Vice President of the Junior League and Board Member of the National

Charity League. In 1997, Ms. Ryba received the Outstanding Woman of the

Year/Athena Award for Riverside County in recognition of her community and

professional leadership"

Posted by Mother, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 30, 2011 at 7:03 am

Such incomes are absolutely ridiculous! Am amazed how numb so many have become to such outrageous numbers. Wonder how much she would be worth if every employee of El Camino quit in one day...

Posted by Now Watching, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 31, 2011 at 11:56 am

I better not hear one IOTA of a complaint about the hospital being short on funds w/out the follow up on how much the executive staff will be taking in pay cuts.

Posted by Fed Up, a resident of another community, on Sep 1, 2011 at 11:29 am

Keep in mind Ken Graham, winner of ACHE's Gold Medal this year, is sitting on the sidelines, being paid full pay and benefits for 18 months "without cause". The board needs to explain how it makes sense to pay someone more who has less industry experience, less national reputation, and whose positions with Junior Leauge and National Charity League are listed as relevant leadership positions in an industry as complex as modern health care. We are all really paying two CEO salaries for the next and a half and for what reason? These board members are frightening in how little they understand the costs and far reaching ramifications of their poor decision making.

Posted by Finance Guy, a resident of another community, on Sep 1, 2011 at 12:21 pm

Fed Up is right on. The ECH management seems as corrupt as the chancellors of the UC and CSU university systems.

Yesterday's (Wednesday, August 31, 2011) page 8 hard copy edition of the Los Altos Town Crier has a most interesting "Letter to the Editor" from an employee at ECH. The Town Crier's online edition doesn't duplicate the print edition so I'm typing in the Letter; any typos are mine and everything following below are the writer's words:

'Healthy Hospital' rewards those at top

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the article headlined "Healthy hospital prescribes higher salaries" (Town Crier, Aug. 17). I am an employee of El Camino Hospital. My union, SEIU-UHW, represents most of the hospital employees who are not registered nurses. We have been in contract negotiations since April, and the hospital has not "prescribed higher salaries" for us.

We were offered a contract that eliminates our free health care, cuts shift and holiday differentials, decreases vacation accrual, lowers retirement contributions, and offers no pay raise.

How nice that the hospital board has offered its top executives pay increases averaging 4 percent and bonuses of between 18 and 26 percent of their salaries. This is the same hospital board that imposed or implemented a contract on registered nurses with many of the same cuts that more than 90 percent had voted to reject. Board members will not even talk with us.

I fear that the hospital is taking advantage of this economic climate to force cuts in compensation to its lowest-paid employees that are not justified by the hospital's financial situation. If the hospital were struggling to stay solvent, it would be a different story, but when I read about the nearly $50 million in profits and lavish executive pay, it really rankles me that they are coming after my health care, vacation and retirement (and a host of other benefits).

I think the El Camino Hospital Board of Directors should be ashamed of themselves.

Kary Lynch

San Jose

My (Finance Guy) comment: "$50 million profit" -- it's my understanding ECH is a community-supported facility that is supposed to be non-profit. Does this mean they're taking that $50 million and NOT feeding it back into the hospital but, instead, distributing it to the upper management of ECH? Sounds like both an audit and a Grand Jury investigation should be ordered to get to the bottom of this.

Posted by Observer, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Sep 2, 2011 at 2:07 am

When medical care started to be more about big business and less about doctors providing medical care is when we came to be left with the current state of health care in this country.

Posted by Greg Nelson, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Sep 3, 2011 at 5:12 pm

Chapman University - slightly more than a diploma mill. Hard to justify her salary by at least $400K.

ECH Board Of Directors are smoking some stuff! While screwing over workers with take backs and salary cuts.

Suggest BOD members be hung by their thumbs until they ...

ECH is best example of FUBAR health care system, supported by GOP.

Thank god I belong to Kaiser.