California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of June 26, 2009
Kingsburg District Hospital
On June 22, Adventist Health approved a proposal to buy Kingsburg District Hospital for $540,100, the Fresno Bee reports.
Under the terms, Adventist also would lease the facility's clinical and administrative office spaces for $1.35 per square foot and the hospital building for $1 per square foot.
Adventist and Kingsburg officials were scheduled to meet June 22, and if they were able to reach an agreement, Kingsburg's board of directors would conduct a vote on June 24.
Adventist spokesperson Christine Pickering said Kingsburg voters would have to approve the sale, and public meetings will be held before the vote (Boyles, Fresno Bee, 6/22).
San Mateo Medical Center
On Monday, San Mateo County supervisors approved a tentative budget plan that would close the county's $72.8 million fiscal year 2009 budget gap in part by eliminating 71 jobs at the county medical center, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Eliminating these positions -- many of which are vacant -- would generate $5.8 million in savings.
About 20 employees will be transferred to other positions and three employees will be laid off.
County officials would like to reduce the general fund's contribution to the medical center budget from $72 million to $50 million by FY 2013.
The budget is expected to be finalized by September (Bishop, San Jose Mercury News, 6/22).
Stanford University Hospital, Palo Alto
An environmental review of the "community benefits" from the proposed Stanford University Hospital expansion project will be delayed until September and cost at least $1.5 million more than was budgeted, according to a Palo Alto City Council staff report issued June 18, the Mercury News reports. The report was due for release this month.
The City Council's approval is needed before the $3.5 billion project can commence.
Under this delayed timeline, the City Council will consider the review in spring 2010.
In April, Stanford officials said they hoped to get the state's deadline for the project's completion -- Jan. 1, 2013 -- extended to 2015 (Oremus, San Jose Mercury News, 6/18).
Valley Health System
In a letter to Valley Health's board of directors last week, the leaders of its two hospitals said that a viable reorganization plan is urgently required to prevent the hospital district from going into bankruptcy, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Hemet Valley Medical Center Chief of Staff Girdhari Purohit and Menifee Valley Medical Center Chief of Staff Bhoodev Tiwari in the letter also wrote that the district's rapidly depleting finances could push it toward a "fire sale" within the next fiscal year.Â
Board member Glen Holmes rejected their assessment, adding that the board will not allow the district to fail (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 6/18). 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.