California Healthline Rounds Up Recent Hospital News
Several hospitals recently announced construction projects, grant receipts and other news. Summaries of recent local hospital news are provided below.
- The Kaweah Delta Health Care District is planning a $21.8 million, 14,000 square-foot cogeneration plant in Visalia to replace its existing plant, the Fresno Bee reports. The existing, 11,000 square-foot plant has lost capacity due to frequent repairs. The new plant will power the existing hospital site, a new six-story hospital tower and another future addition. Lindsay Mann, the district's CEO, said the new plant will save the district $1.5 million in power costs annually (Fonte, Fresno Bee, 3/30).
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Laguna Honda Hospital, San Francisco: The Department of Health Services within two weeks will issue a citation to Laguna Honda, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The Class B citation, the third most serious type of citation, will result from 32 instances of aggressive altercations between patients, or between patients and staff. DHS inspectors also found that the hospital has inadequately managed its more violence-prone patients and that training and staffing to handle the patients are inadequate. If the citation is issued, the hospital would have 15 days to draft a plan for improvement (Matier/Ross, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/28).
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Marin General Hospital, Greenbrae: The Marin Healthcare District, which owns Marin General, and Sutter Health, which has a lease to operate the hospital until 2015, are in "bitter" negotiations over the future of the facility, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Sutter has offered to commit $300 million to rebuild the hospital to comply with state seismic standards, in exchange for a 30-year lease extension. However, the MHD board is "deeply divided" over the offer in part because of criticism about the quality of care at the facility, the Chronicle reports. If negotiations fail, MHD could lease the hospital or hire a management firm to operate it and use a voter-approved bond measure to fund reconstruction of the facility. If the terms of the lease proposal are unsatisfactory to Sutter, the hospital chain has said it might open a competing facility in Marin County (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/29).
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Palomar Pomerado Health, San Diego County: The Palomar Pomerado Health district's finance committee on Tuesday extended a 30-day purchase option for a Rancho Penasquitos site on which a satellite primary care facility could be built, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The current deal is for $6.9 million. The district hopes to complete a site purchase by May and begin construction after a yearlong zoning and permit process, Maria Jackson, the district's chief planning officer, said. The Rancho Penasquitos facility and satellite facilities in Ramona, San Marcos and Valley Center would be built with money raised from Proposition BB, which voters approved in November (Gustafson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/30).
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Paradise Valley Hospital, National City: PVH on Friday received a $100,000 federal grant to expand its emergency services, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Hospital community services manager Dana Richardson said the hospital needs $2.6 million to fully expand its emergency services (San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/26).
- Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, Mission Hills: Providence Holy Cross on Friday announced a $116 million expansion that includes a four-story, 101-bed wing, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. The wing will include a neonatal intensive care unit and operating room. Under the construction plan, existing operating rooms and diagnostic labs also will be expanded. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2007 and will take three years. When completed, the hospital will have room for 355 acute-care beds and 12 in the neonatal unit (Hopkins, Los Angeles Daily News, 3/26).