California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of November 13, 2009
Mercy Medical Center, Merced
Mercy Medical Center Foundation President Billie Razzari said the board has set a goal of raising $5 million to help purchase medical equipment for Mercy's hew hospital, the Merced Sun-Star reports.
So far, the community has raised $3.4 million (Reiter, Merced Sun-Star, 11/10).
San Jose Medical Center
On Tuesday, Santa Clara County supervisors announced a deal to purchase the site of the former San Jose Medical Center for $28.3 million, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Health Corp. of America closed the medical center in 2004.
Officials said they hope the deal will help the county establish a new primary care clinic and urgent care center in downtown San Jose (Rodriguez, San Jose Mercury News, 11/10). After the county finalizes the sale, officials plan to issue a request for proposals to select a health care provider to operate the clinic (Conrad, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, 11/10).
Sutter Memorial Hospital, East Sacramento
Last month, Sutter Memorial Hospital received certification from the Joint Commission to implant heart pumps as a permanent therapy for patients who do not qualify for a heart transplant, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. The certification means the procedure now qualifies for Medicare reimbursement.
The hospital is the only facility in the region that offers heart transplants and the only facility in Northern California certified to implant the pumps, called ventricular assist devices (Robertson [1], Sacramento Business Journal, 11/6).
UC-Davis Medical Center, Sacramento County
UC-Davis Medical Center reported a net income of $55 million on $1.1 billion in operating revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with a net income of $45 million on $1 billion in operating revenue the previous year, the Business Journal reports.
Meanwhile, the hospital generated $57.9 million in income from operations, an increase from $52.4 million the year before.
However, the hospital laid off 138 workers over the course of the year (Robertson [2], Sacramento Business Journal, 11/6). In addition, UC-Davis Medical Center is facing a court battle against Sacramento County, which has stopped paying for indigent patients and owes the hospital as much as $100 million for care (Robertson [3], Sacramento Business Journal, 11/6).
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