California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of February 15, 2013
Alameda County Medical Center, Oakland; San Leandro Hospital
Negotiations involving Alameda County Medical Center and San Leandro Hospital likely are stalled indefinitely, according to San Leandro city officials, the San Francisco Business Times reports (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 2/8).
In November 2012, Alameda County, ACMC and San Leandro Hospital each agreed to pay $3 million over three years as part of a tentative agreement to keep San Leandro open. Under the agreement, ACMC would own and operate the hospital.
However, in January, Wright Lassiter -- CEO of ACMC -- said that hospital officials cannot approve a proposal to transfer ownership of San Leandro Hospital to ACMC because of information released by Sutter Health -- which owns San Leandro -- that showed subsidies to support the facility as an acute care hospital should be three to four times larger than previously estimated (California Healthline, 1/11).
Stephen Cassidy -- mayor of San Leandro and a participant in the negotiations -- said, "My understanding is that [the deal is] essentially dead."
ACMC officials could not be reached for comment (San Francisco Business Times, 2/8).
Doctors Hospital, San Pablo
Last week, Doctors Hospital in San Pablo announced that it is cutting $7 million from its projected losses this year by making changes that include eliminating 22 jobs, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
Dawn Gideon -- CEO of the hospital -- said that the facility also plans to renegotiate physician and vendor contracts and eliminate certain programs and services to reduce the facility's projected losses (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 2/8).
Dominican Hospital, Santa Cruz
Last week, state inspectors gave Dominican Hospital permission to stock its new $12.6 million acute rehabilitation unit and train staff members who will work in the unit, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports.
The 20-bed unit will employ 100 workers, including doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and dieticians.
State inspectors will examine the facility once again before the end of the month.
Mike Lee -- spokesperson for Dominican -- said that patients will move into the facility Feb. 28 (Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 2/8).
Natividad Medical Center, Salinas
Natividad Medical Center in Salinas has launched a new interpreter program to help overcome language barriers in patient care, KQED's "The California Report" reports.
The program aims to improve communication between health care providers and indigenous Mexicans who speak regional languages and rarely speak English or Spanish as a second language (Morehouse, "The California Report," KQED, 2/8). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.