California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of April 12, 2013

HealthSouth, Modesto

HealthSouth -- an Alabama-based rehabilitation hospital operator -- has purchased 5.5 acres of land in Modesto to build a 50-bed facility, Payers & Providers reports.

Jerry Gray -- president of HealthSouth's western region -- said that the "new, state-of-the-art hospital will ensure residents have appropriate and reasonable access to the latest rehabilitative treatment and technology in a hospital setting."

Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2014, and the facility is expected to open in late 2015 (Payers & Providers, 4/4).

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals

On Tuesday, the California Health Facilities Financing Authority approved the sale of $1.9 billion in tax-exempt bonds to help Kaiser Foundation Hospitals build six new facilities across the state, the Contra Costa Times reports.

The foundation will use the funding to build hospitals that meet state seismic safety requirements in Anaheim, Fontana, Harbor City, Hayward, Oakland and Redwood City.

The sale is the largest transaction ever approved by CHFFA (Kleffman, Contra Costa Times, 4/9).

Loma Linda University Children's Hospital

Loma Linda University Children's Hospital received a donation of $180,000 from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to buy advanced ventilators for its neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.

Douglas Deming -- the physician-in-chief of the units -- said that hundreds of children treated at the facility have illnesses and injuries severe enough to require mechanical ventilation (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/6).

Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, Palo Alto; Stanford University School of Medicine

NIH has awarded Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine a $6.9 million grant to help the facilities develop ways to better predict and treat a form of cancer that affects children who are the recipients of solid organ transplants, Payers & Providers reports.

The facilities seek to create a molecular-based test to better assess risk of the cancer. It will examine transplant patients at Lucile Salter Packard and four other sites in California, Florida, Nebraska and Texas (Payers & Providers, 4/4).

Rancho Springs Medical Center, Murrieta

Rancho Springs Medical Center is preparing to launch an education and advertising campaign to inform the public about increased birthing services, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.

Brian Connors -- marketing director for Southwest Healthcare, which owns Rancho Springs -- said the hospital has seen a nearly six-fold increase in its labor and delivery services since 2010. In response, the facility has expanded its labor and delivery rooms from three to 17 and its postpartum beds from 10 to 24 (Rodriguez, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/7).