California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of May 10, 2013

Dominican Hospital, Santa Cruz

Dominican Hospital has invested $28,000 in technology that enables the hospital's doctors to use mobile devices to share radiology images with patients, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports.

The iConnect system -- developed by Chicago-based Merge Healthcare -- interfaces with the hospital's existing electronic health records system to display diagnostic images, such as X-rays and ultrasounds, on any browser-enabled device (Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 5/3).

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has notified its Orange County doctors that they no longer will be permitted to perform elective abortions, AP/Modern Healthcare reports.

The announcement came after the hospital finalized a partnership with St. Joseph Health System, which does not provide contraception or abortion services (AP/Modern Healthcare, 5/5).

Hoag CEO Robert Braithwaite said the decision was not imposed by St. Joseph and was made independently by Hoag's board of directors (Wolfson, Orange County Register, 5/3).

In a letter to staff and affiliated physicians, Hoag officials said the service was discontinued because of the low number of procedures being performed annually (Williams, "L.A. Now," Los Angeles Times, 5/5).

Sutter Health

The California Nurses Association is planning a week-long strike at several Sutter Health hospitals in the East San Francisco Bay Area, as part of efforts to end a negotiations impasse over nursing contracts, the San Francisco Business Times' "Biz Talk" reports (Rauber, "Biz Talk," San Francisco Business Times, 5/7).

CNA officials said the strike will begin May 17 and end May 24.

Participating nurses plan to walk off the job at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, San Leandro Hospital and Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch (Kleffman, Contra Costa Times, 5/8).

Officials at Alta Bates Summit say that while CNA has agreed to significant compromises at other Sutter hospitals, it refuses to acknowledge those compromises in negotiations with East Bay hospitals (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 5/8).

A spokesperson for Sutter Health said the hospitals will remain open during the strike and will be staffed with replacement workers (Contra Costa Times, 5/8).

Sutter Memorial Medical Center, Modesto

Sutter Memorial Medical Center plans to transfer some of its 39 office employees who were laid off in April to jobs at the hospital's new center in Roseville, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.

According to media reports, 15 laid-off employees have been offered jobs at the new center, but it is unclear how many workers will make the move (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 5/6).

University of California

Officials from AFSCME Local 3299 -- a union that represents nearly 13,000 technical workers -- said that last week, its members at University of California medical centers across the state overwhelmingly authorized a labor strike, the San Francisco Business Times' "Biz Talk" reports.

Although strike dates have not been finalized, the decision comes after 10 months of failed contract negotiations, according to the union.

Affected hospitals would include UC-San Francisco Medical Center, UC-Davis Medical Center and other hospitals at UC-Irvine, UCLA and UC-San Diego.

UC officials say that the strike threats are an attempt to distract from more important issues, such as pension reform (Rauber, "Biz Talk," San Francisco Business Times, 5/7).

White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles

Last week, White Memorial Medical Center agreed to pay $14.1 million to settle claims that it paid illegal kickbacks to physicians in exchange for new patient referrals, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Federal officials had alleged that White Memorial violated anti-kickback laws by overpaying some doctors and giving them other improper incentives to refer patients to the hospital.