California Healthline Highlights Recent Hospital News
Community Medical Centers this week said it would require proof of legal residency before providing nonemergency treatment to low-income patients, but abandoned the plan after Fresno County officials said the hospital did not have the authority to institute the plan, the Fresno Bee reports.
CMC Senior Vice President John Zelezny said the hospital made the decision based on an opinion by the state attorney general that said, "A county is not obligated under Welfare and Institutions Code 17000 ... to provide nonemergency health care services under its general relief program to illegal or undocumented aliens."
However, Fresno County Counsel Dennis Marshall told hospital officials that the policy would violate a 1984 court order that bars the county from discriminating against undocumented residents. Because CMC is a county contractor, the ruling applies to the hospital system (Correa, Fresno Bee, 5/4).
Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System is finalizing plans to expand several units of the hospital, the Salinas Californian reports.
The hospital will remodel seven rooms in the Joint Replacement Center to meet specific needs of certain patients and plans to upgrade its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit from Level II to Level III by late summer. The hospital also will hire a maternal fetal medicine specialist in August to focus on high-risk pregnancies and pre-term labor. The hospital will obtain a special ambulance to handle pre-term labor situations and complications associated with premature births.
Hospital officials are finalizing plans for expansions of the emergency department and operating rooms, and construction of an expanded cancer resource center is expected to begin soon (White, Salinas Californian, 4/28).
St. Joseph's Medical Center has received an award from Hospitals for a Healthy Environment for outstanding achievements in environmental innovation in health care related to its recycling programs, the Stockton Record reports. Fourteen hospitals in the nation received the award.
The hospital's environmental program includes 22 strategies, such as retrofitting lighting, purchasing reusable surgeon gowns and recycling paper, batteries and food.
The hospital also received a separate award for eliminating the use of mercury from all areas of the hospital (Goldeen, Stockton Record, 5/3). More than two dozen facilities in the Bay Area were recognized for eliminating the use of mercury (Bohan, San Mateo County Times, 5/3).
Seventy-seven percent of Sonoma Valley voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure to build a new hospital on a parcel of farmland that would have been seized by eminent domain, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports. Fifty-eight percent of Sonoma Valley registered voters participated in the mail election.
The hospital withdrew its support for the $148 million bond measure three weeks ago amid strong community opposition regarding the use of eminent domain. However, the hospital could not stop the election, which cost about $60,000.
The hospital board now is planning to obtain other land to build a new hospital, and officials expect another election to be held by the end of the year for a bond measure. The existing hospital structure does not meet state seismic safety requirements (Norberg, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 5/3).