ESCONDIDO — Three seats on the Palomar Health District board of directors are up for election this year, and candidates are debating key issues, including transparency, executive control and hospital governance.
The board oversees California’s largest public healthcare district by land area, which covers 800 square miles and includes Escondido, San Marcos, Vista and surrounding areas.
In Division 2, incumbent board member Terry Corrales is running unopposed. A registered nurse for over 40 years, Corrales currently serves as the board’s secretary and calls herself a “long-time patient advocate.”
The Division 4 race features incumbent Laura Barry, who has served on the board since 2020, against challenger Abbi Jahaaski.
Barry, an Escondido resident and current board treasurer, is campaigning on her record of improving patient care, expanding the neonatal intensive care unit and supporting initiatives like retention bonuses for nurses.
“I have been instrumental in investing in vital services like trauma crisis care, the opening of the rehabilitation institute, and breaking ground on a new behavioral health hospital,” Barry said in a candidate statement.
Barry also aims to continue working with Sharp Healthcare, which recently partnered with Palomar Health. The partnership allows Sharp doctors to use Palomar Health facilities for North County patients while ensuring Palomar’s independence and strengthening the district’s financial standing.
Jahaaski, also from Escondido, previously worked as a nurse at Palomar Health before moving to Tri-City Medical Center, citing burnout and concerns about board transparency.
Jahaaski has criticized the board’s decision to place Palomar Health’s executive team, including CEO Diane Hansen, under the control of Mesa Rock Healthcare Management.
“It doesn’t feel like a transparent decision, and it doesn’t feel like a decision that really has an employee’s or patient’s best interest,” Jahaaski said.
She is focused on transparency, better pay for hospital staff, and reducing ER wait times.
“I worked for so long at Palomar, I just want to give back to the staff and the patients I used to care for,” Jahaaski added.
The Division 6 race includes incumbent Jeff Griffith, who has served on the board since 2012, facing challengers Joe Muga and Gaurav Dhiman.
Griffith, a retired firefighter and paramedic, aims to continue improving the district’s financial standing and supports the recent move of the executive team under Mesa Rock, describing it as necessary for the partnership with Sharp.
“We didn’t privatize, we created a legal entity that is a nonprofit registered entity and moved our administration over into that organization to negotiate in a safe area with private healthcare like Sharp,” Griffith said. “We never could have partnered with Sharp without that management services organization.”
Griffith had to make some tough decisions during his time on the board, including closing the former Palomar Hospital in downtown Escondido to make way for its new location on Citracado Parkway.
“The hospital was a community legacy where generations of North County residents had been born, but as a board member you understand the financial realities include $20 million just for upgrades to the old facility – HVAC, roof replacement and half the facility wasn’t earthquake compliant – there’s no way to keep it going financially,” he said.
Griffith also expressed pride in the groundbreaking of a new 120-bed behavioral health hospital at Palomar’s Citracado campus, a project that has been a decade in the making.
Muga, a licensed clinical psychologist and former Escondido Union School District board member, also questions hiring Mesa Rock. He argues that the board has abandoned its public responsibilities and promises to prioritize the good of the hospital and community if elected.
“What I have seen happening on the Palomar Health board recently does not pass the litmus test of democratic ideals,” Muga said. “They have thrown away their responsibility as a publicly elected board and hired a private firm, Mesa Rock, to oversee the management of the hospital at a cost of $8 million per year.”
If elected, Muga also pledges to improve ethical behavior on the board, increase public input and “put the good of the hospital above the good of the board of the directors.”
Gaurav Dhiman, the third candidate for Division 6, has not responded to requests for comment, and no additional information about his campaign has been found.
