Major Campaign Issues

By Jennifer Rienks

Restoring community control; neurosurgical coverage; Level II Trauma Care; Stroke Center; Nursing care; Psychiatric Care

· Neurosurgical coverage. Yes, we still need 24-hour neurosurgical coverage at MGH. No, Sutter/MGH has NOT solved the coverage problem. Yes, we need it for trauma care. But we also need 24-hour coverage to obtain prompt care for stroke and other patients. I am concerned about recent reports that contracting neurosurgeons are being required to sign a gag order, forbidding them to publicly raise quality of care concerns at MGH.

· Level Two Trauma Care. As was reported in the Independent Journal, Marin needs a Level Two trauma center. However, Marin is not likely to get Level Two coverage with Sutter controlling the purse strings. Until Sutter is gone, Marin residents will have to accept the fact that if a loved one is seriously injured, they will likely be flown out of the County for care. This means that there will be a considerably longer waiting time to get the care needed than if your loved one could be cared for at MGH. Increasing the time to treatment and result in much worse outcomes than if prompt care were available.

· Stroke Center. For some years, Marin has had among the highest rates of deaths from stroke in California. Until recently, little could be done to minimize the damaging effects of stroke. New effective medicines and technologies are available to treat this devastating illness. To improve outcomes, Marin needs a state-of-the-art stroke center. The District Board brought this issue to the public, but Sutter/MGH has been stalling. Getting a Stroke Center at MGH will be one of my top priorities.

· Nursing Care. Sutter tried again to reduce nurse staffing. Nurses continue to be demoralized. Other licensed healthcare professionals have been significantly reduced (pharmacists, social workers, physical therapists). I will work to reverse this trend and see that MGH limits the number of patients a nurse is required to care for, which improves the quality and amount of care provided.

· Psychiatric Care. Sutter/MGH has stalled and stalled for years on the necessary planning to allow more of Marin's mentally ill to be cared for at MGH. I am committed to restoring local control so that we can finally improve mental health services.