California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of March 13, 2008

Hoag Health Center, Huntington Beach

Hoag Health Center has submitted plans to the city of Huntington Beach to double its size and add a multilevel parking garage, the Orange County Register reports.

The 47,000-square-foot expansion will include additional medical offices, a surgery center and an X-ray suite for the facility, and will require that the center's 100-person staff be doubled in size.

Construction will last roughly two years, and plans are available for public review until March 27 (Burris, Orange County Register, 3/5).

Marin General Hospital, Greenbrae

On March 11, the Marin Healthcare District Board announced that Sutter Health would exit its lease of Marin General Hospital at 11:59 p.m., June 29, 2010, the San Francisco Business Times reports (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 3/11).

The transfer is part of a 2006 court-approved agreement that will permit the district board to resume control (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/12).

Mariposa Hospital

Mariposa Hospital is asking the state to waive a rule prohibiting health centers from taking out lines of credit for more than five years, so it can take out a loan to pay off debts to doctors and vendors, the Fresno Bee reports.

The John C. Fremont Health Care District, which oversees the hospital, is looking to combine old debts into an approximately $2 million long-term consolidation loan.

Charles Bill, the district's CEO, said the hospital has lost money because its service area is not large enough to justify offering specialty services, which carry higher profit margins (Schultz, Fresno Bee, 3/9).

Mercy Medical Center, Merced

Unlike other hospitals, Mercy Medical Center has not experienced a big jump in the number of uninsured patients, or Medi-Cal or Medicare beneficiaries during the recession, the Merced Sun-Star reports.

Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.

According to the Sun-Star, the hospital already treated a large number of uninsured patients, and Medi-Cal and Medicare beneficiaries because of the area's high poverty rate (Reiter, Merced Sun-Star, 3/10).

John Muir Medical Center

On March 30, John Muir Medical Center will close its Concord diabetes center, the Contra Costa Times reports.

John Muir spokesperson Patty Hefner said the decision was made in the interest of reducing costs.

Patients who use the center will now have to travel to the Walnut Creek hospital for diabetes services, the Times reports (Kleffman, Contra Costa Times, 3/5).

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Palo Alto

Expanding the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and building a new Stanford Hospital building would provide $18 million in revenue for the city of Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports.

CBRE Consulting performed the study, which was commissioned by the hospitals.  The report indicates that the project would yield:

• 2,200 new jobs;
• $8.2 million in sales and use taxes for construction activity; and
• $10 million in impact fees (Weselby, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, 3/11).

In addition, the city would receive an additional $4,000 each year from utilities, sales and other taxes, according to the study (Samuels, Daily News/San Jose Mercury News, 3/12).

Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, Mission Hills

On March 6, the Los Angeles City Council voted to permit the expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center to move forward, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In October, a judge ordered that construction be stopped on the four-story wing in response to legal disputes brought by a coalition of neighbors and advocacy groups. 

The coalition wanted a more extensive environmental impact report, addressing parking and traffic concerns, to be conducted before construction was resumed (Reston, Los Angeles Times, 3/7).

City Council member Richard Alarcón said of the council's decision, "We simply cannot allow ... projects that are available to create good jobs in our community to stand idle" (Los Angeles Daily News, 3/10).

Riverside Community Hospital

Riverside Community Hospital's Cancer Center has won a three-year accreditation with commendation from the American College of Surgeon's Commission on Cancer, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.

The comprehensive cancer-treatment center also received an outstanding achievement award, which only 4.5% of the 1,347 accredited cancer centers in the country receive (Lucas, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 3/11).

Tri-City Healthcare District, San Diego County

The Tri-City Healthcare District has not released a report on the finances of Tri-City Medical Center that it ordered two-and-a-half months ago, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. 

The district placed eight hospital administrators on paid leave when it announced the investigation.