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Courtesy Gary Lenhart

Until landfill operations in the 1950s, Alameda Hospital sat along San Francisco Bay. Early proponents saw the glorious view of the Bay as healing in and of itself.

Alameda Hospital is looking toward the future. In October, the League of Women Voters of Alameda (LWVA) held a forum on the state of the Alameda Hospital. At the meeting, the Alameda Hospital District Board President Jordan Battani gave a 90-minute PowerPoint presentation on how the hospital plans to better compete in the healthcare industry. Battani's presentation was filmed and, due to popular demand, LWVA replayed the presentation yesterday at the Mastick Senior Center.

The PowerPoint covers several hospital topics that have not been widely reported. According to Battani, from 2006 to 2008, the hospital consistently lost money. During that two-year time period, the hospital lost about $7.5 million. It rebounded a little during the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, posting a $2 million surplus those two years. The surpluses were due in part to severe budget cuts and a government subsidy program that helped fund the hospital.

The 2011 fiscal year was another bad year. In late 2010, Kaiser stopped providing operating services at the hospital, meaning Kaiser stopped paying to lease certain hospital operating rooms. Much of the other losses that year were "the result of (patient) volume at the hospital being less than expected, and the government subsidy program got changed retroactively and cut in half," Battani said.

Though Battani said that the hospital is slowly climbing out of its 2011 fiscal year hole, it is now at a crossroads. In 2008, the hospital took massive cost-cutting measures. It did wage freezes, salary rollbacks and even layoffs.

It also cut some of its supplies. The 2008 financial measures made the hospital fiscally lean, and were partially the reason for the twoyear surpluses. However, the costcutting measures also made the hospital a barebones operation. It can't cut much more without violating certain government standards for how medical facilities must be run. Now that it's losing money, it doesn't have many options for how to stabilize itself.

Much of the hospital's problems stem from a lack of patients. To combat its current problems, the hospital plans on expanding its services. "So why are we distracting ourselves with that?" Battani said. "Because in a nutshell, the reason other hospitals are financially successful and Alameda Hospital struggles, is because other hospitals in this region, in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, expanded the range of their services in so they weren't dependent on traditional inpatient revenues."

As a part of its expansion, the hospital recently took over the lease of the Waters Edge Nursing Facility. It also plans on increasing its "sub-acute" services, services that provide long-term care to patients unlikely to regain their full health. In addition, the hospital hopes to open up a wound care facility in Marina Village.

Though the hospital plans to start expanding soon, it also must spend money to meet new government requirements. It has to seismically retrofit most of its buildings and make all of its patients' records electronic.

Overall, Battani said that the hospital hopes to stop heavily depending on the $5 million a year that Alameda taxpayers pay to subsidize the hospital.

In the coming months, LWVA will be hosting forums to educate the public about the happenings of local government. In February, LWVA plans to hold a "State of the Alameda Unified School District" forum, presented by School Board President Ron Mooney. In March, LWVA will hold a "State of the City" forum, presented by Mayor Marie Gilmore. Finally, in April, LWVA will hold an environmental symposium to celebrate Earth Day.

"Democracy only works when voters are informed," said LWVA President Jeff Cambra. "The League of Women Voters was founded on this principle and the Alameda League is committed to educating voters. Traditionally, LWVA was most active in an election year when the organization would sponsor candidate forums and Pros and Cons forums on state, regional, and local initiatives.

However, LWVA also believes that voters need to know how their government is being run between those elections. This is true whether it is a city, a school district, or a health-care district."

To find out more about upcoming LWVA events, residents are directed to: http://alameda.ca.lwvnet.org/