[ECDC Announce] News Release: Citizens Group Requests Grossmont Healthcare Board Meeting Attendance Logs

[Raymond Lutz]

  News Release: Citizens Group Requests Grossmont Healthcare Board
  Meeting Attendance Logs

This Page: http://copswiki.org/twiki/bin/view/Common/M609
Source:

Citizens' Oversight Projects
http://www.CitizensOversight.org <http://www.citizensoversight.org/>
http://www.LutzForAssembly.com <http://www.lutzforassembly.com/>


  *NEWS RELEASE*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, August 18, 2008

CONTACT: Raymond Lutz, COPS Coordinator,
raylutz at citizensoversight.org/ <mailto:raylutz at citizensoversight.org/> 
619-820-5321
*
Citizens Group Requests Grossmont Healthcare Board Meeting Attendance Logs*

*Board Members' Ignorance of Deaths Implies Hospital Board Meetings 
Skipped*


LA MESA, CA (Aug 18) -- Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPs) submitted a 
formal request for information to the Grossmont Healthcare District 
(GHD) today, regarding the number of hospital board meetings attended by 
district board members or their alternates. Under the California Public 
Records Act, the GHD is obligated to supply the information.

Last month, Sharp-Grossmont Hospital was cited by the State Department 
of Health for at least two "preventable deaths." GHD board members said 
they knew nothing of these reports until they were reported in the 
newspaper. Last week, they adopted new procedures to require that 
additional reports be generated by the hospital on a quarterly basis, 
and immediate reports made to the GHD CEO, Barry Jantz.

"This new reporting plan sidesteps the main question -- how did the GHD 
Board not know anything at all, given that they are offered seats on the 
hospital board of directors, unless they never actually go," Raymond 
Lutz said, coordinator for COPs and a candidate for the 77^th State 
Assembly District.

The five members of the GHD Board are provided with full seats on the 
Sharp-Grossmont Hospital board of directors, and CEO Barry Jantz is 
offered a seat for informational purposes. However, it seems likely that 
the GHD Board members do not attend the board meetings of the hospital.

"It seems only appropriate that these elected officials should perform 
their duty and attend those hospital board meetings. In fact, it should 
be rare for the elected officials to be absent," Margaret Carlson said, 
candidate for the El Cajon City Council. "Four preventable deaths at the 
hospital is more than embarrassing, it is devastating."

As a second request in the letter, COPs suggests that the CEO should be 
obligated to inform the GHD Board if he receives immediate quality 
assurance reports. "As it stands, the CEO can fail to inform the GHD 
Board with no repercussion," Lutz said.

Thirdly, COPs suggests that the level of confidentiality is excessive, 
and that GHD Board members must be allowed to report egregious 
violations without violating the terms of the confidentiality agreement.

Finally, COPs enumerated issues regarding the poor transparency by the 
GHD. "We give the GHD website an 'F' for openness and ease of use. The 
latest information was nearly a year old, and it treated events in 2006 
as current. No meeting notices, agendas, or even instructions for email 
subscriptions is provided on the site," Lutz said. "We must watch these 
guys carefully. Frankly, they're out of line."

The actual CPRA request is here: 
http://copswiki.org/twiki/bin/view/Common/M608

--Raymond Lutz is a Candidate for the 77^th Assembly District.

###


-- 
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Raymond Lutz, Coordinator
Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPs)
P.O. Box 252             
El Cajon (San Diego Cty), CA 92022 USA
Voice 619-820-5321
http//www.CitizensOversight.org

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