California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of August 21, 2015
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
Sutter Health's new California Pacific Medical Center will use shock-absorbent technology in its walls to help keep the facility open in the event of an earthquake, CBS SF Bay Area reports.
Project Director Paul Klemish said 120 dampers installed in the walls "will actually slow down the movement of [the] building" during an earthquake. CPMC will be the first hospital in the U.S. to use the viscous wall dampers, which often are used in Japan (Borba, CBS SF Bay Area, 8/17).
Community Regional Medical Center, Fresno
Community Regional Medical Center has implemented a new team of surgeons to operate on newborns and premature infants, the Fresno Bee reports.
The hospital also has added operating support staff and an operating room to its neonatal intensive care unit. The new services will reduce transfers to other hospitals for certain services, but newborns and infants who require complex surgeries still will be transferred to Valley Children's Hospital (Anderson, Fresno Bee, 8/15).
Huntington Memorial Hospital, Pasadena
The manufacturer of the duodenoscopes linked to a recent superbug outbreak at a Los Angeles-area medical center has reached out to Huntington Memorial Hospital to investigate a suspected link between the devices and at least three infections at the facility, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In June, the hospital discovered that three patients had contracted an antibiotic-resistant infection. Huntington Memorial said it was investigating whether there was a link between the infected patients and the Olympus scopes used to treat them. However, the hospital said it had not confirmed whether the scopes were the source of the infection.
Olympus spokesperson Mark Miller said the company is now investigating the incident. He said, "We are reaching out to Huntington Memorial to better understand the situation" (Terhune, Los Angeles Times, 8/20).
Scripps Health
Scripps Health has unveiled a new mobile application that lets patients and other visitors search for information on the health system's physicians, hospitals and clinics, MobiHealthNews reports.
With the app, users also can access a link to Scripps' online patient portal (Pai, MobiHealthNews, 8/13).
Sonora Regional Medical Center
Sonora Regional Medical Center has started construction of a new $36 million outpatient facility and cancer center, according to a release.
The new facility will house the Diana J. White Cancer Institute, as well as offer primary care, rehabilitation, imaging and outpatient services. Construction is slated to end in late 2016 or early 2017 (SRMC release, 8/17).
UC-Davis
UC-Davis clinicians are training two dogs to help screen patients for cancer, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The dogs will be trained to screen samples of saliva, breath and urine to identify cases of melanoma, bladder, lung, breast and ovarian cancers. Then staff will work to determine what compounds the dogs are identifying so that they can develop technologies to assist in cancer detection (Lindelof/Crane, Sacramento Bee, 8/17).
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