California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of May 16, 2008
Clovis Community Medical Center's Community Emergency Medical Association announced a pledge of $500,000 to help pay for the hospital's expansion, the Fresno Bee reports. The group represents emergency department physicians at the hospital.
The planned expansion will add more space for patients in the ED and update equipment and technology. The first phase of construction is slated to begin in October and should be completed by 2009 (Correa, Fresno Bee, 5/8).
A group of about 30 Mission Flats residents are protesting the Community Health Enrichment Collaborative -- a privately funded, not-for-profit health center -- because they say it encourages illegal immigration by not requiring patrons to prove their citizenship, the Orange County Register reports.
The center offers health education workshops and other services but does not provide any medical care (Bird, Orange County Register, 5/12).
Healdsburg District Hospital has received $1.8 million from the American Indian tribe that runs River Rock Casino to construct a women's health care center, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.
The tribe and River Rock Entertainment Authority, which oversees the casino, agreed to donate $30,000 per month for five years to the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County, which supports the hospital.
The new center will be called the Dry Creek Rancheria Women's Health Center (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 5/8).
On Wednesday, Kaiser Permanente opened a new $370 million, 150-bed hospital in Irvine, the Orange County Register reports.
The hospital includes an electronic health record system, digital radiology and imaging, and CAT scans.
The hospital's opening also effectively dissolves Kaiser's contract with the 18-year old Irvine Regional Hospital, located across the street from the new facility (Schelden, Orange County Register, 5/9).
The Marin Healthcare District is in talks with Sutter Health, the hospital's longtime operator, about revisiting the terms of a settlement that would allow Sutter to end its lease with the hospital anytime between Jan. 2009 and July 1, 2010, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
Under the separation agreement, Sutter must give 12 to 15 months' notice before ending the lease. If Sutter gives notice in the next few weeks, Marin could undergo a transfer back to its former owner, the Marin Healthcare District, by the summer of 2009.
Marin County supervisors voted to revisit terms of the agreement to ensure that the transfer would be smooth, according to district board member Jennifer Rienks (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 5/9).
Last week, the San Diego Naval Medical Center was renamed the Bob Wilson Naval Hospital in honor of the former U.S. representative who supported opening the facility, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
The hospital opened in 1988, 11 years after Wilson proposed it (Liewer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5/9).
San Francisco General Hospital's Orthopedic Trauma Institute is generating $5.5 million in annual funding for the hospital, which has allowed the hospital and partner UC-San Francisco to augment orthopedic research and clinical care for the city's only Level 1 trauma center, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
The institute performs about 2,000 procedures annually, about 70% of them related to trauma, according to Ted Miclau, chief orthopedic surgeon at San Francisco General.
The facility is still under construction. Officials hope to complete the $4 million project in six months (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 5/9).