California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of April 18, 2014
Community Hospital of Long Beach
On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council strongly urged the California Nurses Association and MemorialCare to negotiate with the Community Hospital of Long Beach to reach an agreement about nurses' contracts, the Long Beach Grunion Gazette reports.
A resolution passed by the council also calls for nurses' contract to recognize "one community standard for patients and registered nurses" (Saltzgaver, Long Beach Grunion Gazette, 4/16).
Palm Drive Hospital, Sonoma County
On Tuesday, a $450,000 emergency loan for Palm Drive Hospital in Sonoma County was approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court judge, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.
The funding will help the hospital finance its operations and payroll until May 1, when a final bankruptcy hearing takes place (Espinoza/Kovner, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 4/15).
Riverside County Regional Medical Center
Riverside County Supervisors Jeff Stone and Marion Ashely last week said a report on Riverside County Regional Medical Center's overtime spending does not show the progress made by the hospital to address its financial difficulties, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Auditor-Controller Paul Angulo's report found that the hospital overshot its budget for overtime and daily employees by nearly $28 million between 2008 and 2012 (Horseman, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/10).
UC-San Diego Shiley Eye Center
Last week, an anonymous patient donated $6.5 million to UC-San Diego's Shiley Eye Center to bolster the center's focus on using stem cells to address common eye conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and certain blinding corneal diseases, U-T San Diego reports.
Robert Weinreb, the center's director and a glaucoma expert, said that Shiley currently is conducting a global search for stem cell scientists to work at the center (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 4/11).
UC-San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital
On Wednesday, UC-San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital announced that physicians working at the hospital who specialize in infant care will now staff the special care nursery at Washington Hospital, the Daily Review/Contra Costa Times reports.
According to the Daily Review/Contra Costa Times, the special care nursery at Washington Hospital is an intermediate infant intensive care unit (Parr, Daily Review/Contra Costa Times, 4/16).
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