Few patients pay for care except through MediCal and other insurance. A few questions: How does the Hospital District use insured patients to make money? How many admitted patients are there, on average, each night? What will the Hospital do to land more patients and money to justify the expansion planned? Can the Hospital District build upward any number of stories or does it need permission from the city?

@How does it work? I can answer part of one question. I don't know how familiar you are with mental health services in Santa Clara County. Today, anyone under 18 in our county who needs to be hospitalized for depression, anxiety etc is sent out-of-county for help because no hospital (from Valley Med to Stanford) will admit them. El Camino's new behavioral health building will be awesome and will include the MOMS and OATS programs (for post partum depression and older adults). We are hoping that El Camino will expand it to include hospitalization for youth. With community financial support, El Camino has already expanded its ASPIRE program (outpatient youth mental health) to serve youth from 12 to 25. However, over 20 kids a day are being hospitalized out of county and many more choose no treatment rather than being "sent away"..

While this is a much needed facility, what will be done to alleviate the over crowded grant road. During commute hours we practically get trapped in our neighborhood with no way out. I wish infrastructure plans were included in these developments or build it where the old Lucky was on el camino. It is beyond ridiculous the short term oversight with all the explosive development.

Grant road makes the neighborhood south of it very undesirable. The livability is just not there since you have to time your day around a blocked road that is the only way in and out. Glad we decided to buy in another part of town. I think I would have gone crazy by now. We all have to deal with traffic, but that Grant rd is a deal breaker.

Hoping your cost cutting measures arent off the backs of your nurses who are on the frontlines and the very backbone of our magnet El Camino Hospital

In response to the comment posted by Los Altos....the Hospital is trying to cut nurses salaries and benefits. It is unfortunate that they have offered us a very unreasonable contract, one we have all rejected. We continue to negotiate and hope to obtain a fair contract. We want to continue to work at this excellent Magnet Hospital. We know that the hospital needs the nurses who are their backbone and are in the frontlines everyday holding this excellent Magnet Hospital together.