Candidate Statement

By Mike Smith

I have the experience, ability and commitment necessary to preserve our community hospital to guarantee the hospital maintains the quality patient care Sonoma Valley deserves.

As a thirty year local resident I've depended on Sonoma Valley Hospital. I worked in the emergency room and my daughter Noni was born there and I want to see the hospital taking care of all of us for a long time to come.

I have been a registered nurse for twenty five years. As a nurse I have been trained to be a patient are advocate and to be the voice for patients and their families. I will bring my patient care perspective to the Board.

Two years ago you elected me to the Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees. As your representative I have been successful in bringing people together to develop new programs for seniors, healthcare professionals and working students. Working together, members of the Creekside Home Owners Association and the faculty, were able to bring a Spanish class to Temelec. In partnership with Kaiser and the Health Sciences Department we have developed a low cost, accessible Physician Assistants program to help meet the critical need for healthcare professionals. In a cooperative effort between the Building Trades, the faculty and the administration we are developing an Associate of Arts degree for apprenticeship programs. I will use my demonstrated skills at coalition building and program development to bring new programs and resources to the hospital to meet the special needs of seniors, women, children and the Latino community.

I have had thirty years experience in the health care field. I have been lecturing on the politics of health care to nurses for twenty years. I understand the complex issues and the challenges we face. I participated in writing the first successful HMO reform legislation to protect patient rights and legislation to provide the first funding for rural health clinics in California. I've been a champion for quality care for seniors and have actively supported successful nursing home reform legislation an legislation to improve training and working conditions for home health care workers. As a chairperson of the California Nurses Alliance legislative program I have participated in writing legislation to provide proper staffing levels in hospitals. If we had the proper Medicare reimbursement rate, the hospital wouldn't be in financial crisis. As you can see, I have the experience in the legislative arena to work towards correcting this inequity.

I've been involved in grass roots organizing in the health care field since I was a student at Sonoma State when I organized the Alianza Farmworkers' Clinic in Healdsburg in 1971. I have organizational experience, knowledge and political skills necessary to bring people together. If we need to pass a bond to purchase land for a new hospital, I have the ability to mobilize and educate the community so we can be successful.

If elected, I will have the energy, creativity and devotion to healthcare essential to preserving a high quality community hospital in Sonoma Valley.