California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of May 31, 2013
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
Last week, the San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved plans for two California Pacific Medical Center hospitals, the San Francisco Business Times' "Biz Talk" reports.
California Pacific Medical Center had submitted construction proposals to downsize its Cathedral Hill hospital campus and expand St. Luke's Hospital in Mission District.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the deal next month and provide final approval in July (Rauber, "Biz Talk," San Francisco Business Times, 5/24).
Good Samaritan Hospital, San Jose; Regional Medical Center, San Jose
Last week, hundreds of registered nurses participated in a two-day strike at two San Jose hospitals affiliated with the Hospital Corporation of America, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United took part in the strike at Good Samaritan Hospital and Regional Medical Center over disputes involving wages, benefits, pensions and staffing levels (Kleffman, Contra Costa Times, 5/23).
Sonoma Valley Hospital
Sonoma Valley Hospital in California is informing 1,350 surgery patients about a data breach that occurred on Feb. 14 during a routine website software update, Health IT Security reports.
Patients treated at the hospital from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012, were affected.
The software update temporarily made patient data available through a search engine, including information such as patient names; procedures; hospital charges and insurer names.
Officials said the data did not include Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver's license numbers or addresses.
Richard Reid, CFO and compliance officer at the hospital, said after the breach was discovered in April that officials "apologized to the patients" and took "action to understand the cause of the breach and strengthen polices and controls protecting patient information" (Ouellette, Health IT Security, 5/28).
VA Medical Center, San Francisco
The VA Medical Center seeks to form a public-private partnership to fund a $500 million hospital and research facility in Mission Bay, the San Francisco Business Times' "Biz Talk" reports.
The facility would replace the current San Francisco VA Medical Center near the Golden Gate Bridge, which VA officials say is too small and relies on outdated technology.
Bob Obana -- executive director and CEO of the Northern California Institute for Research and Education -- said that U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked San Francisco VA officials to develop a public-private strategy to fund the facility, citing tight fiscal constraints and only a slim chance that Congress would allocate money for the center (Dineen, "Biz Talk," San Francisco Business Times, 5/22). 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.