California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of August 30, 2013
Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta
Last week, Riverside County's Emergency Medical Services Agency granted Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta accreditation as a designated STEMI Receiving Center. LLUMC-M is the only area hospital to have the designation, which indicates that the hospital will be able to care for patients with ST Elevated Myocardial Infarctions.
Previously, the 20-30 STEMI patients in the Murrieta area each month were transported more than 30 miles away for appropriate care (LLUMC-M release, 8/29).
Marin General Hospital
On Aug. 26, Marin General Hospital and UC-San Francisco Medical Center announced a pediatric partnership in Marin County that will place UCSF perinatologists and neonatologists at Marin General, as well as at a multi-specialty outpatient facility, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports.
In addition, the partnership will involve both hospitals integrating pediatric hospitalists and developing practice standards for the most common pediatric conditions treated at certain Marin General units (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 8/26).
Sutter Health
Following a planned system upgrade, the electronic health record system used at seven East San Francisco Bay hospitals, medical offices and clinics crashed for several hours on Aug. 26, according to the California Nurses Association, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The incident affected Alta Bates Summit Medical Center facilities in Berkeley and Oakland; Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley; Mills Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo; Sutter Delta in Antioch; Sutter Tracy; Sutter Modesto; and doctors' offices affiliated with Sutter Medical Foundation in the Sacramento region.
Sutter spokesperson Bill Gleeson said that staff followed Sutter's procedures for such an occurrence while the system was offline (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 8/27).
Washington Hospital, Fremont
In the coming months, Washington Hospital aims to start construction on a $300 million, three-story Morris Hyman Critical Care Pavilion and a seven-story, 680-space parking garage, San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports.
The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is slated to give final approval to the 250,000 square-foot Critical Care Pavilion within a few weeks, and construction should begin in the fall. The Pavilion -- which will house an expanded emergency department, coronary care unit and intensive care unit -- should be completed with four years.
The parking structure was scheduled to begin construction in August or September, but the start date might be pushed back because of negotiations with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 8/23).
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