[3] Each California health care district is governed by a locally elected board of directors.

[5] The origins of Palomar Health can be traced back to two benevolent German women, Charlotta Baker Hintz, a nurse, and Elizabeth Martin, a dietician, who left their jobs at the Anaheim Sanitarium in 1933, to establish a hospital to serve the small farming community of Escondido.

Using their own money, the women bought an egg and poultry plant at 125 South Broadway and converted it into a 13-bed hospital.

In 1945, the Escondido Valley Hospital Association was formed to investigate the possibility of building a larger facility to keep pace with growth.

Palomar Memorial Hospital, named in tribute to the men and women who served in World War II, was dedicated on February 16, 1950.