With a pharmacist father and an aunt who was a nurse, Nancy Brooks grew up with a health care background. But it was her experience getting her appendix removed as a teenager that exposed her to the nursing profession and sparked her interest. With training from San Jose State, Brooks has worked at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View for more than 35 years. “My whole life has been here at this hospital,” she said. “We have the best group of nurses up here.”
Wes Alles sees the value in community health efforts, but he also knows it’s better if you can measure that value.
Alles was born in Philadelphia and taught at University of New Mexico and Pennsylvania State University before joining Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, directing wellness efforts and saving the company nearly $4 million. He became acquainted with the El Camino Hospital District through his work on the South Bay Business Group on Health’s efforts to use data analysis to help companies and health providers find more efficient ways to provide health care.
The public is invited to observe interviews with potential El Camino Hospital board members, an official with the Mountain View-based health care organization said. Five candidates applying for three new board positions are scheduled to be interviewed at the hospital district's board meeting, planned for Saturday, May 12, at 9:30 a.m., said Chris Ernst, a spokeswoman with the hospital. Community members are invited to observe the interviews, which are to begin at 10:15 a.m. and continue into the afternoon.
Back in January, El Camino officials announced plans to add three new members to the hospital board. Up until this point, board members have served a dual role as members of both the hospital board and the hospital district's board. Hospital board members are appointees, while hospital district board members are elected officials. The five-member district board is not expanding.
Painters-in-training, and their fans, gathered at El Camino Hospital last week to launch the annual Creative Expression art exhibit. For years now, Los Altos resident Tehila Eisenstat has led oncology patients and hospital staff in painting classes that culminate in the show. Their work is on exhibit through May 14, 2012.
This was year five for our Women of Influence Business Journal event and the energy in the room was incredible. We had a record number of attendees, 970, and the faces of the 100 honorees said it all: They were excited and proud to have been chosen for the Class of 2012.
Tomi Ryba, the CEO of El Camino Hospital (also an honoree) set the stage for the night. She stood at the podium, looked out on the crowd of mostly women and said, "If we all worked in the same company, imagine what we could all do."
Los Gatos resident Helen Gaetano, a 46-year volunteer veteran of El Camino Hospital Los Gatos has donated nearly 19,000 hours at the Information desk and more recently, in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), hospital officials announced this week. As a PACU volunteer, Gaetano ensures that the unit is stocked with pillows and warm blankets, delivers patient charts and answers multiple phone lines-all tasks that she sees as a way to lighten the load of the hospital's busy nurses, said hospital spokeswoman Hatti Hamlin. Gaetano is among more than 1,400 El Camino Hospital volunteers who were recognized this week as part National Volunteer Week, Hamlin said.
"... We want our extraordinary volunteers to know just how valuable and appreciated they are," said El Camino Hospital CEO Tomi Ryba. "While we appreciate the skills and dedication of our extraordinary paid workforce, our volunteers help make it possible to deliver not just superior care, but superior caring."
Pelvic health is emerging from the health care closet to become a prominent 21st-century medical specialty field. Like many health care trends today, its emergence is being led primarily by older women, including those at the leading edge of baby boom generation. They’re beginning to experience a common health condition — incontinence — but refuse to suffer in silence as did previous generations. Along with conditions resulting from childbirth and physical injuries, pelvic disorders affect more than 9 million women in the United States, according to Michael Hibner, a Phoenix-based physician who specializes in pelvic health.
El Camino Hospital, with facilities in Mountain View and Los Gatos, is taking a leading role, adding a pelvic health component to its extensive women's hospital program in October.
More than 800 Silicon Valley civic and South Asian community leaders gathered at the Santa Clara County Convention Center March 24 to celebrate “Scarlet Night,” the fourth annual fundraising gala for the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital.
The event pushed the center past its annual goal of raising $300,000, generating more than $250,000 from ticket sales, individual donations, auction proceeds and corporate sponsorships to support the center’s work to end the epidemic of heart disease among South Asians.
Things look a little different at Landels Elementary these days. School staff has started to modify its nutritional offering through a number of policies and practices to encourage healthy eating habits and physical activity in students and their families, according to Principal Carmen Mizell. "What we’re doing is a partnership with El Camino Hospital and Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), to really just promote healthy habits," Mizell said. “We’re very excited about it.”