California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of August 10, 2012

California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco

On Monday, California Pacific Medical Center announced that it had dismissed 120 consultants on a $2.5 billion construction project previously expected to begin in October, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

Sam Singer, a CPMC spokesperson, said the hospital dismissed architects, engineers and planners -- who collectively were costing about $3 million per month -- until the project's future is more certain.

To meet state seismic building requirements, CPMC has proposed rebuilding St. Luke's Hospital in the Mission District and constructing a new 555-bed hospital on Cathedral Hill. However, ongoing negotiations between CPMC and San Francisco officials have delayed the construction project (Sabatini, San Francisco Examiner, 8/6).

Dignity Health, UC-San Francisco Medical Center

Dignity Health and UC-San Francisco Medical Center have signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate operations at their San Francisco hospitals, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

The plan would integrate operations at UCSF's Parnassus, Mount Zion and Mission Bay campuses with Dignity's Saint Francis Memorial and St. Mary's hospitals.

UCSF and Dignity officials did not unveil further details of the integration plan but said it would not involve a merger or an acquisition (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 8/3).

Kaiser Permanente, Anaheim

On Sept. 12, Kaiser Permanente is scheduled to open a new hospital to replace its 38-year-old facility in Anaheim, the Orange County Register reports.

The new 262-bed, $425 million facility will have the same design as Kaiser's Irvine Medical Center. The 27-acre campus will include two medical office buildings and a three-acre garden with an area for outdoor physical therapy (Perkes, Orange County Register, 7/31).

St. Joseph Health System, Orange

St. Joseph Health System has announced plans to affiliate with Mission Internal Medical Group, a 71-physician internal medicine practice based in Mission Viejo, Modern Physician reports.

Under the agreement, Mission Internal will affiliate with St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare, a physician practice organization consisting of large multispecialty groups and independent physician practices (Evans, Modern Physician, 8/9).

St. Joseph's Medical Center, Stockton

Hospital volunteers and community members have planted a garden on a 3,800 square-foot section of St. Joseph Medical Center's campus, the Stockton Record reports. The garden is expected to provide fruits and vegetables for residents of San Joaquin County.

St. Joseph's officials consider the garden a type of preventive care that could help curb high rates of obesity and diabetes throughout the county (Breitler, Stockton Record, 8/2).