California Healthline Highlights Recent Hospital News
Community Medical Centers will scale down its asthma education and management program in Fresno, an area with high asthma rates, the Fresno Bee reports.
The program will be restructured and moved to University Medical Center in southeast Fresno. Staff will be reduced from eight to two employees effective July 1.
John Zelezny, senior vice president and spokesperson for Community, said the program is being restructured from one-on-one to group education to save money. According to Zelezny, the program "loses hundreds of thousands of dollars each year" (Correa, Fresno Bee, 6/7).
The Adventist Health board of directors last month announced that it ended talks to sell South Coast Medical Center to DSI Holding, the Orange County Register reports. The board in July 2005 announced it would sell the hospital, which needs seismic safety improvements to comply with a state law.
Medical Center President and CEO Bruce Christian said he plans to replace equipment, renovate the exterior of the center and recruit new staff. He also plans to hire a consultant to develop "cost effective" methods to address state requirements (Wheeler, Orange County Register, 6/3).
The Valley Health System Board of Directors on Thursday unanimously approved a plan to place a $485 million bond measure on a special-election ballot in September to fund an expansion and renovation of hospitals in Hemet and Menifee, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
The bond would be used for seismic safety retrofits and to expand hospitals to accommodate a growing population. It also would be used to pay down about $79.5 million in existing revenue-bond debt.
If approved, the measure would place a $17.99 tax per $100,000 of assessed property value (Atienza, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 6/8).