California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of January 18, 2013
Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta
On Tuesday, Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta announced that it officially became a not-for-profit hospital on Jan. 1, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
According to hospital officials, the change will not affect day-to-day operations.
They said that the hospital was forced to buy out a group of local physicians who owned the facility because of an Affordable Care Act provision that bars new physician-owned hospitals (Hill, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 1/15).
Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego
Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego has reduced its emergency department wait time from an average of 180 minutes to an average of 147 minutes, according to officials, U-T San Diego reports.
Irvin Kaufman -- senior vice president of health affairs at Rady --said the hospital convened a blue ribbon panel in February 2012 after discovering that the amount of time patients were waiting in the facility's ED was longer than the industry average (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 1/12).
San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital, Banning
On Tuesday, Mark Turner -- CEO of San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital -- announced that the facility will move forward with plans to build a six-story patient tower, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
During a Beaumont City Council meeting, Turner said that he is seeking private funding sources for the project, which is estimated to cost about $184 million. However, the hospital could decide to use a combination of private and taxpayer funds to complete the tower (Waldner, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 1/16).
San Joaquin Community Hospital, Bakersfield
Last week, San Joaquin Community Hospital announced a partnership between its AIS Cancer Center and the UC-Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Bakersfield Californian reports.
The affiliation will provide San Joaquin's cancer center with access to UC-Davis' clinical trials and resources.
San Joaquin physicians also will be able to take part in video teleconferencing sessions with health care providers from across the UC-Davis Cancer Care Network (Cook, Bakersfield Californian, 1/11).
UC-Davis Medical Center, Sacramento
Last week, UC-Davis Medical Center received a letter saying that CMS had withdrawn its threat to terminate the hospital's participation in government health care programs, the Sacramento Business Journal reports (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 1/14).
CMS was investigating operations at the hospital after J. Paul Muizelaar and Rudolph Schrot -- two former members of the UC-Davis neurological surgery department -- were banned from the university last year after conducting experimental treatments on three dying brain cancer patients without federal or university approval (California Healthline, 12/14/12).
In the letter, CMS said that care delivery at the facility is adequate enough and that no further corrective action is needed (Sacramento Business Journal, 1/14). 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.