By David Courtland
Oxnard’s city council warned St. John’s Hospital it is unhappy the hospital has been outsourcing some jobs, passing a resolution against the policy Tuesday night by a 6-1 margin with Bert Perello dissenting.
The resolution says the council is concerned that having a center in Arizona monitor patients remotely is not as safe as having onsite staff at the hospital do it.
Most of the 20 onsite heart monitor techs have been reassigned to lower-paying jobs and two have retired.
After hearing arguments for and against the resolution from the public the councilmembers all expressed support for onsite monitoring.
“I know if I found any of my peers or their loved ones at the hospital, I would want them to have the best care possible for our Oxnard residents,” said Councilmember AJ Valenzuela.
Valenzuela, who sponsored the resolution, said he had heard the criticism from some that local government should not be weighing in on a private hospital’s policies.
“There are two counterpoints to that,” said Valenzuela. “One, that these private medical facilities receive millions of taxpayer’s dollars, I think we should have a say in what they do.”
Valenzuela went on to express the view that healthcare should not be a private business but “about the best healthcare and quality of life of Oxnard residents.”
Councilmember Gabe Teran began his comments by explaining he looked at government like a relationship with the public where it is very easy to lose trust but very difficult to get it back, comparing wariness of remote monitoring to being uncomfortable riding in an autonomous vehicle.
“Would you be more comfortable getting into an Uber or Lyft that was being driven by someone in Arizona doing all the left and right turns virtually,” while overseeing 20 or 30 other vehicles, Teran asked.
Teran concluded that the city could not tell St. John’s what to do but hoped it would hear the statement being made through the resolution.
But Councilmember Bert Perello said the city council should not be involved in a private business matter.
“I look this as a matter of labor and management,” Perello said. “If there were not an SEIU union backing this, would we be making this pitch? I don’t think so.
“If there were not an election coming up, would we be doing this? I don’t think so,” Perello continued.
Perello said when he goes into stores and sees self checkout machines, he sees the direction technology is taking the world in.
“I don’t want anyone to lose a job, but when I go into grocery stores and I see scanners used, when I go into Home Depot and I don’t see any clerks, the way of the world is going that way,” Perello said.