A saddened board of the Tri-City Healthcare District met yesterday and said it didn't know what to do now that voters have rejected the third bond measure in two years aimed at raising money to upgrade the district's hospital and make it earthquake-safe.
In its first meeting since Proposition A, a $589 million bond measure, failed to get the necessary votes on Tuesday, the board said there may now be longer waits in the Tri-City Medical Center emergency room and lines for the delivery rooms.
“It's going to be difficult to put modern equipment in antiquated buildings,” board Chairman Larry Schallock said.
The bond would have enlarged the emergency room and urgent care services in the Oceanside hospital, upgraded the intensive care unit, built two towers and demolished two old ones that don't meet tougher state earthquake standards due to take effect in 2013.
The state could close the hospital if it doesn't meet those standards, but there was little talk of closure yesterday.
Instead, there was a lot of talk of financial belt-tightening.
Board members said the public has to be convinced that hospital administrators are sincere in their efforts to save money.
But saving money won't be enough to raise the funds needed for construction, Schallock said.
“I do not think we will ever be able to generate the revenue,” he said. “Hopefully, people will understand that when they have a full ER.”
Two nurses in the audience protested any talk of saving money. Already, they said, patient care is compromised by policies cutting the number of nurses on call or available to the patients.
Board members said they weren't ready to take any formal action so soon after the election. The public hospital district – which spans most of Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista – conducted an election with mail-in ballots that had to be returned to the county registrar of voters by Tuesday.
The proposition garnered 62.44 percent approval, less than the 66.67 required for a measure that would have raised property taxes to pay for the bond. Slightly more than 37 percent of the 142,350 ballots were returned, according to the registrar.
Yesterday, the board discussed setting up an ad hoc committee to weigh options for the hospital's future, but director Kathleen Sterling got support from her peers when she said the full board should be involved.
In the end, the decision of what to do next was left open, pending an analysis next month by Tramutola, an Oakland consulting firm that had recommended the mail ballot.
Dr. Gary Gonsalves, head of the group that opposed the bond, told the board it had circumvented the democratic process by using the mail ballot.
Board member Darlene Garrahy said that when she heard the election results Tuesday night, she threw up and then “cried for hours and hours and hours.”
“What I'm hearing,” board member Dr. Madeline Rodriguez said, “is that we have to work with what we have.” Rodriguez, an obstetrician, added, “I can deliver babies in a manger” if necessary.
Lola Sherman: (760) 476-8241; lola.sherman@uniontrib.com
