California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of August 8, 2014
Doctors Medical Center, San Pablo
As of Thursday, Doctors Medical Center closed its emergency department to patients arriving by ambulance, according to hospital officials, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Williams, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/6).
In addition, the hospital will cap inpatient services at a capacity of 50 and discontinue offering other services. The move comes as the hospital faces significant financial burdens that may result in its closure (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 8/4).
Kaiser Permanente, Sacramento
Kaiser Permanente has received a five-year, $7.3 million award from the National Cancer Institute that it will use to bolster its cancer clinical trials program in the Sacramento region and other areas, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
Louis Fehrenbacher, director of Kaiser's Northern California oncology clinical trials program, said the funds will be used to improve infrastructure and hire additional staff at Kaiser's Roseville, Sacramento and South Sacramento hospitals. The three facilities enroll about 25% of the 3,500 participants in active clinical trials in the Northern California area (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 8/5).
Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego
On Monday, Rady Children's Hospital announced it is receiving a $120 million donation to create the Pediatric Genomics and Systems Medicine Institute, which will sequence and analyze patients' genomes, U-T San Diego reports.
The donation from Ernest Rady is the second-largest non-bequest donation given to any organization or institution in San Diego county (Robbins, U-T San Diego, 8/3).
Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla
On Monday, Richard Gephardt -- chair of the Scripps Research Institute's board of directors -- publically apologized to the organization's faculty for failing to include them in talks about whether to merge with or sell the institute to the University of Southern California, U-T San Diego reports (Fikes/Robbins, U-T San Diego, 8/4).
Scripps and USC canceled talks about the possible affiliation last month after institute faculty members in an email objected to the proposed merger or takeover, saying such a deal could "destroy much of what has been built and what we and others in the community value so much" (California Healthline, 7/18).
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
On Friday, UC-San Francisco's Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland announced it has received a two-year, $500,000 grant under the Affordable Care Act to create new mental health services for homeless and at-risk adolescents, children and young adults in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, according to a hospital release.
The grant will allow the facility to create and pilot test a new model for integrating physical and mental health services into the facility's primary care clinic (Children's Hospital Oakland release, 8/1).
USC Keck Medical Center, Torrance Memorial Medical Center
The University of Southern California's Keck Medical Center in Los Angeles has partnered with Torrance Memorial Medical Center to expand cardiac surgery services, Modern Healthcare reports.
According to Modern Healthcare, five surgeons from USC will join the staff at Torrance's 377-bed facility to support its cardiothoracic surgery program. The Torrance hospital will be responsible for compensating the professional services (Herman, Modern Healthcare, 8/5).
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