California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of July 11, 2014
Children's Hospital of Orange County
Children's Hospital of Orange County laid off 89 employees following an evaluation aimed at improving hospital efficiency, the Orange County Register reports.
Hospital spokesperson Denise Almazan said that the eliminated positions were mixed among management and non-management roles and that the lay-offs were part of the hospital's work to improve performance and operations (Perkes, Orange County Register, 7/4).
Desert Regional Medical Center, Palm Springs
Tenet-operated Desert Regional Medical Center has sent 90-day termination notices to some orthopedic surgeons who work on rotation, the Desert Sun reports.
Physicians who received the letters are independent from the hospital, and the terminations will take effect in September, according to the Sun (Pelham, Desert Sun, 6/29).
Memorial Medical Center, Modesto
In late June, registered nurses at Sutter Health's Memorial Medical Center in Modesto voted not to unionize, according to preliminary results from the vote, the Sacramento Business Journal reports (Robertson [1], Sacramento Business Journal, 6/30).
Employees at the medical center have not been unionized since it opened in 1970. During the campaign to unionize, nurses have cited issues such as inadequate staffing, requirements that nurses work in settings outside of their clinical expertise and lack of respect from hospital administration (California Healthline, 6/13).
Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas
Last week, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas opened a 26-bed emergency department in its new, $94 million critical-care building, U-T San Diego reports.
The new facility was built to accommodate the demand for ED beds in California's costal North County, where the population is both increasing and aging. Last year, the hospital's ED served more than 40,000 patients (Donnelly, U-T San Diego, 7/1).
Sutter Health, Sacramento
Sutter Health is expanding a nurse training program that aims to address an anticipated shortage of operating room nurses in the state, the Sacramento Bee reports.
According to the Bee, Sutter this year expanded its accelerated operating room training program to be offered five times each year. The program trains operating room nurses in half the time of traditional programs, according to the Bee (Ochavillo, Sacramento Bee, 6/28).
Sutter Roseville Medical Center
Sutter Roseville Medical Center is moving forward with plans to construct an additional medical office building and parking garage on its current campus, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
Last week, the Roseville city planning commission approved the three-story, 60,000-square-foot building and five-story parking garage. Construction on the sites is expected to begin this fall, with completion slated for spring 2015 (Robertson [2], Sacramento Business Journal, 6/30).
VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
A whistleblower employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System is alleging that the facility manipulated patient records, the Orange County Register reports.
In an email, VA employee Jean Goode said she reported the manipulated records "to the clinic manager in July or August of 2013," but that the issues have persisted and are "being done by a supervisor in order to improve" the facility's "numbers." In another email to hospital director Donna Beiter, Goode explained that she had seen a supervisor "remake appointment(s) in order for the clinic wait time to appear as zero " (Hood, Orange County Register, 7/6).
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