California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of March 27, 2015
Daughters of Charity Health System
Several potential buyers have expressed an interest in purchasing one or all of the Daughters of Charity Health System's six safety-net hospitals, the San Jose Mercury News reports (Seipel, San Jose Mercury News, 3/23).
Earlier this month, Prime Healthcare Services withdrew its offer to buy the six hospitals after California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) imposed a series of conditions on the deal with her approval of the sale (Gorn, California Healthline, 3/11).
The health system did not disclose who had expressed interest in purchasing the properties (San Jose Mercury News, 3/23).
Doctors Medical Center, San Pablo
The West Contra Costa Healthcare District board has voted to start closing the cash-strapped Doctors Medical Center starting in late April, Oakland Tribune reports.
According to the Tribune, the hospital has been struggling financially since the 1990s, in large part because of low reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid patients.
The closure was delayed by a week to allow the district to consider a potential turnaround proposal. Officials said they expect to decide by next week whether the plan is viable.
If officials instead decide on an "orderly closure" -- in which payroll, accrued vacation payouts and vendor fees are paid -- it will take about six months and cost $5.3 million (Lochner, Oakland Tribune, 3/26).
San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco General Hospital plans to hire more than 100 registered nurses to fill open staff positions at its new inpatient medical center, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports.
The $877 million facility is expected to open in December. The hospital will hire RNs for emergency care, medical-surgical, critical care, peri-operative services and other specialty areas (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 3/23).
Stanford Health Care
Construction on Stanford Health Care's new hospital structure is underway and the facility is set to open for business in 2018, the San Francisco Business Time' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports.
The $2 billion facility expands upon the existing Stanford Hospital campus' intensive care and emergency departments. Construction is expected to be completed in 2017 (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 3/24).
St. Joseph Hoag Health, Orange County
St. Joseph Hoag Health has launched three "wellness corner" clinics around Orange County, Hospitals & Health Networks Daily reports.
The clinics typically include an exam room and telemedicine suite and feature a range of preventive health and wellness programs, ranging from primary care to fitness training. The clinics usually are staffed by a nurse practitioner and a medical assistant (Stempniak, Hospitals & Health Networks Daily, 3/23).
Sutter Davis Hospital
On Jan. 31, Sutter Davis Hospital implemented a facility-wide electronic health records system, the Davis Enterprise reports.
Departments within the hospital had maintained separate systems before rolling out the Epic Systems EHR (Bellamy, Davis Enterprise, 3/19).
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