Alta Bates Closure Could Leave A Health Care Void For The Most Vulnerable, Report Finds
The report’s authors expect the closure of Alta Bates, which is scheduled to happen before 2030, to prompt some people to temporarily forgo treatment because of the extra travel time to other hospitals.
East Bay Times:
Report: Alta Bates Closure Would Critically Impact Poor, People Of Color
The planned closure of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in South Berkeley could hurt the poor, elderly and people of color and result in longer emergency room wait times at other hospitals in the region, according to a UC Berkeley report. In 2016, some 63 percent of Alta Bates’ patients and 56 percent of its emergency patients were people of color and about 41 percent were uninsured, according to the report, conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development. (Tadayon, 1/1)
In other news from across the state —
Ventura County Star:
Closure Of Dignity Health Merger Pushed Back
The completion of a merger that involves two local hospitals and would create one of the largest nonprofit hospital systems in the nation has been delayed. Dignity Health officials announced Friday that the closure date of Dignity’s merger with Catholic Health Initiatives has been pushed back one month, to Jan. 31. ...Dignity operates 39 hospitals, including St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. The merger with Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives would create a system, CommonSpirit Health, that would operate 700 care sites across 21 states including 140 hospitals. (12/21)
Ventura County Star:
St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital Addition Opens In Camarillo
In the new hospital, once expected to be finished in March, rooms are private and almost twice as big. They overlook Camarillo’s hills and farm fields. They come with a sofa and a recliner that can both be used as beds. ...The emergency department and the eight-bed intensive-care unit — both updated — remain in the old facility. The number of general-care and ICU beds decreases from 66 to 58. Officials say the change is more in line with the hospital’s typical patient census. (Kisken, 12/21)
Ventura County Star:
$43 Million Cleared For Ventura County Reserves, Special Projects
Ventura County has notched the biggest year-end balance in five years in a general fund budget that pays for key services, finishing with $43 million at the end of the last fiscal year in June. ...About $10 million of the $43 million balance materialized because state payments for mental health care delivered years ago finally arrived. The county Behavioral Health Department was owed the money for counseling of schoolchildren whose learning is inhibited by attention, emotional and other disorders. (Wilson, 1/1)