a District Board member had disclosed to a non board member physician, confidential information discussed during a*

R2

recommends that OVHD consistently adhere to its own established bid proposal guidelines so as to prevent the public perception of favoritism and/or conflicts of interest. As explained in the findings, on a single occasion we underestimated the scope of a remodeling project and prematurely issued a bid. Once we were aware of our error, we immediately corrected the situation. We make every effort to adhere to our well established policies for bids and to correct our actions in case of an error. We will certainly raise our awareness and be mindful of the need to avoid any perception of favoritism or conflict of interest.

R3

recommends that we improve our dissemination of public information, stating that we mailed out 8000 letters to the community regarding the "revised" hospital construction plan and that the Grand Jury does not believe that amount of information to be adequate for a service area of 75,000 residents. The mailing referenced is only one of many information channels used to communicate our messages. However, it should be noted that the mailing went to 7500 "households", not individuals. Households often include two or more adults as well as several children so the reach is far beyond 7500 residents. With regard to the "revised" hospital plan, as stated in the findings section, both the Modesto Bee and the Oakdale Leader covered this story extensively. We included the information on our website and via other committees and organizations. We routinely communicate hospital related information to our communities with regular features, columns and stories in the Oakdale Leader. We routinely submit information to the Modesto Bee seeking coverage. We regularly update our website with information including a chronological history of the project, the final report of the Citizens' Oversight Committee and monthly updates. We direct Board/grandjury/2011/finalfrielgrandjuryresonse. 4 people to our website at every opportunity. We conduct frequent tours of the new hospital and use the local media to encourage District residents to join the tours. We strongly encourage residents to attend open meetings to learn more. Dates of those meetings and minutes of previous meetings are on our website. As with most companies and public agencies, the hospital has faced difficult financial challenges during this recession. Like others, we have been forced to trim our budgets. We have reduced the workforce and salaries. We have made significant budget reductions throughout the organization. Certainly our marketing, advertising and public information budgets have been impacted in the past two years. We simply do not have the financial resources to conduct extensive media or public information campaigns. I appreciate and respect the Grand Jury's desire that we should do more. I would like very much to do more, but candidly, it is just not financially feasible at this time. I believe we do a reasonable job with the limited resources available. Should Your Honor desire or require additional information, we will be happy to respond. S∕incer¢ ∮ohn Friel, CEO Oak Valley Hospital District Board/grandjury/2011/finalfrielgrandjuryresonse. 5