Endorsement: Rymer, Mainardi for hospital board
The last time there was a contested race for the Sonoma Valley Health Care District board was 2010. To put that into context, consider this: It was 2010 when then-President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act; 'Lost' was a top-10 show in the Nielsen ratings; and the term 'uber' meant little more than a German prefix denoting something extreme.
In other words, it's been a long time.
But after three straight healthcare district elections which saw only board incumbents file to run, this time longtime SVHD board member Peter Hohorst decided not to seek re-election, opening up one seat to new blood, while incumbent and current board president Joshua Rymer seeks to retain the seat he's held since appointment in 2013.
Joining Rymer on the Nov. 6 ballot are retired engineer Doug Ghiselin and retired gastroenterologist Michael Mainardi.
Whichever two candidates earns the seats on the board, they'll find themselves serving a district that's navigating major challenges in a 21st century healthcare world. Like many communities of its size, the Sonoma Valley Hospital is adapting to a healthcare landscape of rapidly advancing technologies in an aging community amid lower government reimbursements for Medical and Medicare patients.
These are challenging times for community hospitals, to be sure.
And this year the Sonoma Valley Healthcare District has made some difficult – and not always popular – decisions, such as eliminating its under-used child-birth services and transferring its home-care program to Hospice By the Bay. As of this writing, hospital officials are brainstorming for solutions to help make its skilled-nursing program financially viable as well.
Joshua Rymer, 61, has served as board chair in 2018, a year of transition for SVH, which is in the midst of cost-cutting measures to mitigate a more than $6 million deficit this year – made only somewhat more palatable by the $3.85 million in annual parcel tax revenue thanks to last year's narrowly voter-approved Measure B.
'Healthcare is going through huge changes,' Rymer told the Index-Tribune in a recent interview. 'We're a relatively small player – fighting to stay alive every day, every week, every month.' He said the cost-mitigating measures the district is considering are an effort to shore up revenues for the hospital's most essential services.
'We can't live without an emergency department,' Rymer said.
If he earns another four years on the board, Rymer said he would continue to push hospital management to 'think proactively -- out into the future,' and acknowledge to the community that the recently renewed – and increased by $55 in 2017 – parcel tax is likely here to stay. 'I don't see a way to claw back from a $6.5 million loss' without it, he said about the district's $250 per year levy through 2022.
If he had one message to voters, he says he 'wishes people would remember how far this hospital has come in the last eight years.'
Warns Rymer: 'We're a nonprofit -- but that's a tax designation. We can go out of business.'
Michael Mainardi is a retired gastroenterologist who'd practiced mainly in the South Bay before hanging up his colonoscope a few years back and moving to Sonoma. Since then he's served four years on the SVH quality committee and currently chairs the board of the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center.
Mainardi, 77, said if he were on the hospital board he'd work to bring SVH and the health center closer together. He sees several benefits to a tighter working relationship between the two entities, including the potential to share resources. He points to the hospital's underutilized space and the health center's need to expand. 'It's a win-win for the community if the center can rent space in the hospital,' Mainardi told the I-T.
He names 'finances' as the district's primary challenge in the coming years, but says district officials need to also keep their eyes on the impending 2030 deadline for seismic upgrades.
Mainardi would like to see the hospital do a better job communicating its vision to the community. 'The closure of (the obstetrics ward) could have been done in a different way,' he said.
He'd like to see the district send the message to the community that: 'We're going to have high-quality, affordable and compassionate care.'
Douglas Ghiselin is a retired engineer who says he spent 33 years working in the nuclear industry. He was inspired to run for the healthcare district board after attending the board's regular monthly meetings and growing frustrated over what he believed to be a lack of proper inquiry from the board members.
'The current board is too far removed,' Ghiselin, 77, told the Index-Tribune. 'Get a report, say 'thank you,' go to the next one.'
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