California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of August 9, 2013
Corona Regional Medical Center
On Wednesday, Corona Regional Medical Center announced that it will close its pediatrics unit Sept. 6, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
The hospital said that emergency services for pediatric patients would not be affected, but such patients would no longer be admitted to the hospital.
Officials did not provide reasons for the closure.
The nearest hospital with a pediatrics unit is Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside (Fischetti, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 8/7).
El Camino Hospital, Mountain View
On Monday, the not-for-profit Rooms That Rock 4 Chemo celebrated the completion of a volunteer project at El Camino Hospital Cancer Center that transformed the walls of the center's four rooms into a nature-inspired mural, the Contra Costa Times reports. The project was designed to ease cancer patients' experience at the hospital.
Rooms That Rock 4 Chemo completed the project with the help of 25 volunteer artists and a $5,000 sponsorship from Art.com (Krieger, Contra Costa Times, 8/5).
San Leandro Hospital
On Aug. 1, Sutter Health signed an agreement to donate San Leandro Hospital to Alameda Health System, the Contra Costa Times reports (McGlone, Contra Costa Times, 8/2).
Under the agreement, Sutter Health will set up a transition fund to help the hospital make the shift.
Sutter Health and Alameda Health System said in a statement that the transition would require support from San Leandro's medical staff and funding from the Eden district, the city of San Leandro and Alameda County (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 8/2).
Simi Valley Hospital
Last week, Simi Valley Hospital hosted decontamination training that educated participants on how to treat emergency department patients contaminated with toxic chemicals, the Ventura County Star reports.
The training instructed hospital staffers how to care for the short- and long-term health needs of patients while also addressing decontamination triage procedures designed to keep hospital workers protected from contamination.
The Indianapolis-based company DQE conducted the training, which was attended by members of Simi Valley, Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, Ventura County Medical Center and the Ventura County Medical Reserve Corps (Willer-Allred, Ventura County Star, 7/31).
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