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The Mountain View RotaCare is closing down. The board of El Camino Healthcare District signed a new deal to finance the MayView Community Health Center to serve as the region’s main medical facility for the uninsured.
At the Jan. 19 meeting, district board members agreed to provide the MayView clinic with $2.4 million over the next four years so that it can handle the low-income patients transferring from the RotaCare housed on El Camino Hospital’s Mountain View campus. Under the plan, RotaCare would be phased out in May or June.
Hospital officials said the switch to MayView was ultimately in the patients’ best interest. Speaking to the healthcare board, hospital vice president Cecile Currier said MayView could provide prenatal and chronic disease services, whereas RotaCare was never intended for ongoing care.
“We’re doing our very best to make this as easy as possible for the patients and staff,” she said. “We feel that pooling our resources with a well-established and effective clinic in the long term is a solid move.”
Since December, El Camino Hospital officials have sent mixed signals about their plans for the RotaCare clinic, which is largely staffed by volunteers. At the start of January, officials hinted at an imminent closure while informing more than 200 volunteers their services would no longer be needed. At the time, hospital officials said the closure was temporary due to a sudden shortage in mandatory paid staffing. The clinic reopened a couple weeks later with a skeleton crew.
While pledging to keep RotaCare open for an indefinite period, El Camino officials did make the case that closing it would be a sensible move. The clinic was serving only a fraction of the patients it had in past years, since many low-income residents were leaving Silicon Valley or now had health insurance due to the Affordable Care Act.
Presented with the plan, some district board members showed some reluctance. Staff members gave assurances that they would implement an outreach and transition plan in the coming months to inform the community about the change.
“I’ve already received feedback from the comunity, and there’s concern in the comunity, and my concern is that we do this correctly,” said board member Julia Miller. “I do believe staff has done their due diligence, but the devil’s in the details.”
Board member Dennis Chiu warned that a June closure may not provide enough time to fully transition hundreds of patients. He urged staff to consider shuttering the clinic no sooner than the end of the year.
“We have to be as close to 100 percent as possible to make sure these patients don’t fall through the cracks,” he said. “I think this sends the wrong message to the community.”
The healthcare district board of directors approved the $2.4 million for MayView in a 4-0 vote, with Chiu abstaining.
Why is it necessary to wind down services before the new facility is fully operational? Why should a service like Rotacare (or MayView) be staffed by volunteers anyway? In 2015 the MV Voice reported that El Camino Hospital raked in more money than anticipated in 2015, ending with $65 million in extra cash” http://www.mv-voice.com/news/2015/07/13/el-camino-hospital-has-a-very-good-year
El Camino is a for-profit business, they certainly do not deserve the .ORG domain name, their desire for maximum profit is reflected in their pricing. I don’t think it makes any sense at all to give money and volunteer time to a hospital which features a marble lobby and a baby grand piano. How does El Camino give back to the Community? (besides fluff programs like Health Perks, I don’t need another pedometer or travel mug).
@Kathy: Because despite the program being fully funded, they aren’t able to attract the staff required to cover the mandatory, paid staffing positions. That point was raised in earlier articles about the (now certain) closure of RotaCare. I was suspicious too, but in this particular case it wouldn’t surprise me that paid positions are going unfilled for want of talent. My bioinformatics startup is having a hard time finding biosciences people to move to a pricey part of the US; why should the medical industry be any different.