Facts & Information

El Camino Health Media Contacts

We are available to assist journalists with resources for stories, arrange on-site logistics, and provide background information. To ensure federal patient privacy standards are upheld for all hospital patients and visitors, a staff member from Marketing & Communications must accompany all reporters and photographers while at the hospital or hospital operated clinics.

Reporters, videographers, still photographers and other media interested in coming to El Camino Health's hospitals, clinics or facilities must first contact a representative from Communications via email at media@elcaminohealth.org or by calling 650-694-3880.

One of our top priorities is to protect patient privacy and individually identifiable health information. We follow the privacy requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 and existing California law. Patients must give specific authorization for the disclosure of their protected health information.

El Camino Health Facts at a Glance

El Camino Health has served the communities of Silicon Valley and the South Bay for more than 60 years, with nationally recognized physicians and nurses at two not-for-profit acute care hospitals in Los Gatos and Mountain View, and primary care, multi-specialty care, and urgent care locations across the region. El Camino Health is dedicated to giving patients high-quality care utilizing the most advanced technology and research. As your healthcare partner of choice, we focus on keeping you healthy and getting you back on your feet when you need it, so you can live your best life. Aside from achieving outstanding patient outcomes, the hospitals have earned numerous awards for clinical excellence, including being named one of the World's Best Hospitals 2024 by Newsweek, one of the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care by U.S. News & World Report, one of America’s 100 Best for Cardiac Care by Healthgrades and becoming the San Francisco Bay Area’s first Magnet hospital, earning four consecutive designations from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for nursing excellence.

Key service lines include cancer care, cardiovascular care, maternity care, mental health and addiction services, orthopedics, pulmonology, urology, and women's health.

Brief History

Local voters approved the formation of the district in 1956 by a 12-to-1 margin. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors appointed a five-member board. Its first decision was the selection of a 20-acre orchard on Grant Road in Mountain View as the site for the new hospital. The name "El Camino Hospital" was also chosen. In 1957, voters approved a $7.3 million bond issue, again by a large margin, to finance the building and operation of the hospital. Construction of the four-story hospital began in 1958.

The El Camino Hospital Auxiliary was founded in 1958 with 1,000 members. The first medical staff, 21 members strong, was established in 1960. By 1961, all necessary preparations had been made and the hospital admitted its first patients on September 1, 1961.

Continuing a steady pace of growth over the next decades, the hospital added an array of community need-based services, including an outpatient surgery center, family birthing center, emergency, radiology and intensive care facilities, a psychiatric unit, and senior resource center. During the hospital’s third decade in the community, the El Camino Hospital Foundation was established to raise charitable contributions in support of the hospital.

In 2006, after the second groundbreaking event in El Camino Hospital's history, construction began on the Mountain View campus on the new seismically compliant main hospital building. Three years later, after a festive ribbon cutting and community day with more than 8,000 people taking tours of the new facilities, the new state-of-the-art hospital in Mountain View opened on November 15, 2009.

In 2008, the hospital acquired the assets of the former Community Hospital of Los Gatos. The former owners closed the hospital in April 2009, but within 90 days, a fully renovated and staffed El Camino Hospital Los Gatos reopened that July. The 143-bed hospital continues to offer full service, acute care to residents of Los Gatos and surrounding communities, just as it had been doing since it first opened in 1962.

Photos of El Camino Health

Mountain View Hospital Campus

Los Gatos Hospital Campus