California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of November 12, 2010
El Camino Hospital, Mountain View
El Camino Hospital plans to implement a new $1.9 million work force management system designed to eliminate the hospital's need for paper time cards, the Mountain View Voice reports. The new system would store employee information in a computer system that managers could access when making staffing decisions, according to hospital officials.
El Camino Hospital CIO Greg Walton said he expects the system to help reduce hospital costs related to overtime, scheduling and bringing in labor from outside the hospital. Officials estimate that maintaining the new system will cost about $201,000 annually (Veronin, Mountain View Voice, 11/9).
Los Robles Hospital Medical Plaza at Moorpark
Moorpark Comprehensive Medical Group recently acquired a 21,676 square-foot building as part of its plans to establish the Los Robles Hospital Medical Plaza at Moorpark, the Ventura County Star reports.
Brokers who handled the sale said the planned facility will offer comprehensive family medical care and urgent care services. Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center plans to lease a portion of the new building. The medical complex is expected to open in February (Willer-Allred, Ventura County Star, 11/4).
Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center, Redlands
The Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center recently opened a new Center for Women's Health in Redlands, the Redlands Daily Facts reports.
The facility -- which includes six patient care rooms and one procedure room -- will combine women's primary and specialty care in one unit. The location also will provide female veterans with access to mental health services and same-day digital mammograms (Steinberg, Redlands Daily Facts, 11/5).
John C. Fremont Healthcare District, Mariposa
The John C. Fremont Healthcare District and the John C. Fremont Foundation already have received thousands of dollars in donations for their efforts to build a new hospital in Mariposa, the Merced Sun-Star reports.
Charles Bill, CEO of the health care district, said John C. Fremont's existing hospital is 60 years old and needs to be replaced. The new hospital is expected to cost $38 million. Officials said they intend to design the new facility to comply with state seismic safety guidelines (Amaro, Merced Sun-Star, 11/9).
John Muir Medical Center, Concord
The John Muir Medical Center's new Hofmann Family Patient Care Tower features a cardiovascular institute and a 28,000 square-foot emergency department, the Contra Costa Times reports.
The $212 million project aims to help John Muir's Concord campus increase its focus on cardiac care. The new cardiovascular institute has five cardiac catheterization laboratories, 12 preoperative and recovery beds, 12 cardiovascular ICU beds and 49 private rooms with heart monitoring (Guzzetti, Contra Costa Times, 11/10).
Mayers Memorial Hospital District, Fall River Mills
On Nov. 2, Shasta County voters approved Measure D, a $14 million bond measure designed to help Mayers Memorial Hospital District retrofit its facilities to comply with state seismic safety standards, the Redding Record Searchlight reports.
Mike Kerns, president of the board for Mayers Memorial Hospital, said the bond measure will raise funds through property taxes estimated at $50 annually per $100,000 of property value. In addition to the seismic retrofits, the hospital aims to undertake improvements to its admitting facilities, emergency department and imaging lab (Sabalow, Redding Record Searchlight, 11/3).
Scripps Health System, San Diego County
On Tuesday, Scripps Health System announced that it will continue to provide health services to the roughly 500,000 Kaiser Permanente members in San Diego County, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Scripps and Kaiser announced a new 10-year contract for Scripps to provide bariatric services, cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology to Kaiser members in San Diego County. Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest will provide bariatric treatment and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla will provide cardiac care. Scripps also will provide treatment to Kaiser members transferred to any Scripps hospital or emergency department (San Diego Union-Tribune, 11/9).
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