California Healthline Highlights Recent Hospital News
Doctors Medical Center plans to close its substance abuse treatment center because the program loses money as the hospital faces a $1 million monthly deficit, hospital officials said, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Ending the program, called New Beginnings, will save the hospital about $372,000 annually, spokesperson Gisela Hernandez said.
Although the hospital board has not yet voted to close the program, New Beginnings stopped accepting new patients last week and has informed outpatients that treatments will no longer be available at the end of next week. The hospital board will take up the issue at its Sept. 26 meeting.
Peggy Lipper, vice president for corporate development at the hospital, said overhauling the hospital's information technology system has led to some unexpected expenses. The hospital hopes to increase revenue through a long-term agreement with the Department of Corrections to treat inmates from San Quentin State Prison, Lipper said, adding that additional program cuts could be made in the coming months (Lochner, Contra Costa Times, 9/7).
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital officials on Wednesday announced two $1 million donations to the hospital's brain tumor research center, the Bay City News/San Jose Mercury News reports.
The Listwin Family Foundation will donate $1 million to the Center for Children's Brain Tumors at the hospital, which will be matched by a pledge made last year by Price Charities.
The donations will be used to fund research into medullablastoma, the most common primary central nervous system tumor that affects children (Bay City News/San Jose Mercury News, 9/6).
CMS this month is expected to release the results of an inspection of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, which will determine whether the facility will retain eligibility to participate in Medicare, the Washington Post reports.
CMS inspected the hospital last month to see if it meets standards of care in 23 areas. If the hospital fails the inspection, it stands to lose $200 million of its $380 million budget and could close.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the closure "will set off a medical meltdown in terms of emergency services" (Pomfret/Geis, Washington Post, 8/26).
Staff at Natividad Medical Center is concerned about provisions in proposed contract changes that will reduce the number of days of notice the hospital would give employees before firing them, the Monterey County Herald reports.
At Natividad Board of Trustees meeting last week, hospital CEO Andrea Rosenberg said staff members "are getting very, very nervous and exploring other options," adding, "I'm concerned about a mass exodus."
Monterey County supervisors want a 30-day termination clause. Some current clauses are as long as 120 days.
Rosenberg said she would propose a uniform 90-day termination clause for most staff and 120 days for service directors.
Also at the meeting, management consultant Chuck Jervis outlined the timeline for hiring a new management firm. The firm likely will be in place by mid-October (Johnson, Monterey County Herald, 9/2).
Dozens of service workers at Rady Children's Hospital picketed outside the facility on Wednesday over the latest contract offer, KPBS' "KPBS News" reports (Goldberg, "KPBS News," KPBS, 9/6).
Officials had hoped an agreement for about 700 service workers would be reached before the new fiscal year, which began July 1.
Contract negotiations stopped after union leaders and hospital administrators reached an impasse over worker representation (California Healthline, 6/30).
The KPBS segment includes comments from Lucila Conde, an interpreter at Rady ("KPBS News," KPBS, 9/6).
The complete transcript is available online. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
San Ramon Regional Medical Center plans to spend $13.5 million on a two-year expansion and upgrade of the facility, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
The project includes $8 million to increase the number of emergency department beds from seven to 21. Laboratory facilities will be relocated and expanded. Hospital officials expect that phase of the project to take about two years to complete.
The plan also includes $5.5 million to replace and expand the medical center's information technology system (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 8/25).
Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette on Sept. 1 ruled that construction of a $600 million expansion of Sutter Medical Center should not be halted while more information is provided to the public about the project's impact on traffic, parking and air quality, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
Marlette's ruling states that if Sutter can correct the CEQA violations by submitting the studies for public review and comment, "it could be expected that the project ultimately might be re-approved in its present form." (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 9/5).
Capital Public Radio's "KXJZ News" on Thursday reported on the ruling. The segment includes comments from John Borsos, vice president of the Service Employees International Union's United Health Care Workers-West (Milne, "KXJZ News," Capital Public Radio, 9/7).
The complete transcript is available online. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.