California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of January 2, 2015
Daughters of Charity Health System
Some members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West have announced their support for the sale of six Daughters of Charity Health System hospitals to Prime Healthcare Services, despite the union's campaigning against the sale, according to a statement from the health system.
In a petition, some union members said they support the sale because Prime has pledged to help preserve members' jobs and pensions (Daughters of Charity Health System release, 12/15/14). The sale is pending approval by State Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), who has until Feb. 11 to approve or void the deal (California Healthline, 12/12/14).
Hoag Hospital Foundation, Newport Beach
Hoag Hospital Foundation has received a private $1.5 million donation to support the hospital's stroke program, according to a release from the foundation.
The gift is from a patient who was treated for a hemorrhagic stroke at the hospital four years ago. The donation will help the Hoag Neurosciences Institute update its imaging technology (Hoag Hospital Foundation release, 12/17/14).
Kaiser Permanente
About 2,600 Kaiser Permanente mental health clinicians plan to launch a weeklong strike on Jan. 12 at hospitals across the state to protest inadequate mental health care at the health system, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Clement Papazian, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers' Northern California chapter of mental health clinicians, said "There's been a long-standing problem with access to quality mental health care at Kaiser." Meanwhile, Kaiser officials said they were disappointed about the strike, adding that they plan to meet with NUHW representatives on Jan. 6 to discuss proposals for remedying any access issues (Parr, San Jose Mercury News, 12/31/14).
Lodi Memorial Hospital Association
Lodi Memorial Hospital Association members have voted 189-14 to affiliate with Adventist Health in Roseville, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The affiliation could be completed by spring 2015, pending approval from the California attorney general. According to the Business Journal, the terms of the deal have not been disclosed (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 12/17/14).
Mercy Medical Center, Redding
In December, Dignity Health's Mercy Medical Center Redding notified several hundred patients about a HIPAA breach that made their health information accessible via Google and other search engines, Healthcare IT News reports.
The breach, discovered on Dec. 13, involved a third-party vendor that posted a link on its website to physician progress notes on 602 patients who received care at Mercy's oncology clinic. Affected information included patients' dates of birth, diagnoses, medication, names, therapy and treatment plans, but not Social Security numbers (McCann, Healthcare IT News, 12/23/14).
The hospital notified patients on Dec. 18, and the third-party vendor has removed the link to the data from its site (Jayanthi, Becker's Health IT & CIO Review, 12/26/14).
St. Helena Hospital
St. Helena Hospital will pay $2.25 million to settle claims over the alleged overuse of cardiac operations and overbilling of Medicare, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
A lawsuit alleges that the hospital between January 2008 and July 2011 charged Medicare for medically unnecessary angioplasty procedures and admitted patients for resident care when they should have been treated as outpatients. The lawsuit was originally filed by Kacie Carroll -- former director of the emergency department of the hospital's auxiliary campus in Lake County -- who will receive $450,000 of the settlement. The suit was taken over by the U.S. Department of Justice, where the settlement will go (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/20/14).
UCLA Health System
The UCLA Health System has hired a team of 16 medical informatics specialists to help boost the system's adoption of health IT, U.S. News & World Report reports.
The member providers are part of several hospital boards and teach a class to help physicians more efficiently use electronic health record systems. The team also is certified to customize modules for its Epic EHR system and plans to continue to assist the health system through education, research and further refining the EHR system (Versel, U.S. News & World Report, 12/29/14).
University of California Health System
In fiscal year 2014, UC Health System more than doubled its combined operating surplus, from $221.1 million on $8 billion in revenue in FY 2013 to $507.4 million on $8.6 billion in revenue in FY 2014, Modern Healthcare reports.
The increase in earnings in part can be attributed to a higher patient volume and increased reimbursement rates, according to the health system. Meanwhile, the hospital system's expenses also increased in FY 2014 by 3.7%, primarily because of higher salaries and benefit and supply costs, Modern Healthcare reports (Kutscher, Modern Healthcare, 12/29/14).
University of Southern California Verdugo Hills Hospital
About 200 health care workers at the USC Verdugo Hills Hospital have voted to join SEIU-UHW, according to an SEIU release.
The workers include administrative assistants, nurses, nurse assistants and patient services representatives, among others (SEIU-UHW release, 12/15/14).
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