California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of June 20, 2014
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
On Wednesday, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced a project to train barbers in neighborhoods with predominately black populations to check customers for high blood pressure, the AP/Sacramento Bee reports. The project is funded by an $8.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and will begin with a study of about 500 men who visit 20 Los Angeles-area barber shops (AP/Sacramento Bee, 6/18).
Doctors Medical Center, San Pablo
On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved $6 million in funding to temporarily keep Doctors Medical Center open while officials determine a permanent resolution to keep the facility financially stable, the Contra Costa Times reports (Lochner, Contra Costa Times, 6/18).
The hospital contains 25 of the area's 40 emergency medical beds (AP/Sacramento Bee, 6/17).
Kaiser Permanente
Practice Greenhealth, a national not-for-profit group that encourages environmentally responsible health care, has given environmental excellence awards to Kaiser Permanente medical centers in Sacramento and Roseville, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The awards were given based on the facilities' environmental footprint and efforts to support sustainability (Glover, Sacramento Bee, 6/19).
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente's new Oakland Medical Center is set to open on July 1, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports. The facility is part of a project to expand and revamp the provider's flagship campus (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 6/13).
Marshall Medical Center, Cameron Park
The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has awarded an $800,000 grant to Marshall Medical Center for a project to reconfigure an 8,440-square-foot facility in Cameron Park for cancer treatment, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The reconfigured building will include oncology and infusion services, and construction on the site is expected to start this summer (Robertson [1], Sacramento Business Journal, 6/12).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, Los Angeles
A budget plan approved by the state Legislature this week includes a provision creating a new payment structure for Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles.
Under the provision, the hospital would be able to reopen in 2015 (Budget plan, 6/15).
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, Sylmar
Los Angeles County-based Olive View-UCLA Medical Center has agreed to pay $40,750 over allegations that it failed to properly screen a patient for emergency medical conditions in a timely manner, the Los Angeles Times' "L.A. Now" reports. According to HHS' Office of Inspector General, a patient waited more than six hours for treatment at the hospital before moving to another facility where he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and a large abscess that required immediate surgery (Sewell, "L.A. Now," Los Angeles Times, 6/19).
Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego
Rady Children's Hospital is notifying patients of a data breach that occurred when an employee emailed a spreadsheet of protected information to four job applicants, U-T San Diego reports.
The data breach affected more than 20,000 patients, and the spreadsheet included the dates of admittance and discharge dates, dates of birth, names, medical record numbers, primary diagnoses and other private information (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 6/17).
St. Joseph Health, Sonoma County
Last week, officials with St. Joseph Health reported that a thumb drive containing X-ray records of 33,702 patients was stolen from an outpatient radiology facility in Santa Rosa, the Bay City News Services/Contra Costa Times reports. The data were being transferred from Redwood Regional Medical Group -- which just joined St. Joseph's network -- to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's electronic health record system.
The drive contained patients' names, gender, medical record number, date of birth and appointment information, as well as X-rays, the X-ray technician's name and the amount of radiation used. Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital last week sent letters to patients who were affected by the breach (Bay City News Service/Contra Costa Times, 6/12).
Sutter Health, Sacramento
Sutter Health has announced plans to install overhead patient lifts at 19 facilities in the Sacramento area, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. The project will cost $11.5 million and is aimed at preventing employee injuries from repositioning and moving patients (Robertson [2], Sacramento Business Journal, 6/12).
UC-San Diego Jacobs Medical Center
A new specialty hospital for cancer patients is slated to open in the UC-San Diego Jacobs Medical Center in 2016, U-T San Diego reports.
The Pauline and Stanley Foster Hospital for Cancer Care will occupy three floors of the medical center and include 108 beds. The center also will include a bone marrow transplant unit with 36 beds (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 6/15).
UC-San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland is planning by the end of August to open a specialty pediatric clinic, the Contra Costa Times reports.
The facility will include an orthopedics and sport medicine center (Tsai, Contra Costa Times, 6/19).
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