California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of November 19, 2010

Alvarado Hospital, San Diego

On Wednesday, Ontario-based Prime Healthcare Services purchased Alvarado Hospital in San Diego for an undisclosed amount, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Prem Reddy, chair of Prime Healthcare, said the sale has been in discussions for about a year. For now, the 306-bed Alvarado Hospital will remain open with no staffing changes. The recent purchase by Prime Healthcare is the second time in less than four years that Alvarado has changed owners (Lavelle, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11/17).

Department of Veterans Affairs, Sacramento

On Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided a $5 million contract to construction firm Geney/Gassiot to build a psychiatric veterans' hospital at Sacramento's Mather Field, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.

Construction is expected to begin next spring and take 14 to 15 months. The new hospital will be a 12,600 square-foot, 16-bed facility at the Department of Veterans Affairs' medical complex at Mather Field (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 11/17).

Kaiser Permanente, San Ramon

On Tuesday, Kaiser Permanente announced that it had purchased an office complex in San Ramon that could be used for health care purposes, the Contra Costa Times reports. Kaiser purchased the 73,000 square-foot building on Oct. 29 under undisclosed purchase terms.

Marc Brown, a Kaiser spokesperson, said the health care organization has "no plans at present to occupy the building," but bought the facility for "potential future use" (Avalos, Contra Costa Times, 11/16).

March LifeCare, Riverside County

California Baptist University recently signed a letter of intent with the developer of the planned March LifeCare medical complex on the site of the former March Air Force Base, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.

Under the agreement, March Healthcare Development would provide CBU with five acres of land to build a facility as a charitable gift. The facility could be related to research, education or training, according to CBU.

Mark Wyatt, vice president of marketing and communication for CBU, said there are no expectations about when a binding agreement would be signed or when the university would build a facility on the site (Pierceall, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 11/17

Marshall Hospital, Placerville

By the end of next year, Placerville's Marshall Hospital plans to build a new $81 million wing that would increase the size of its existing facility by about one third, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.

The expansion would nearly double the number of beds at Marshall Hospital from 105 to about 200. The first phase of the project is expected to cost $51 million and be completed by next fall. It will include a lobby, a 17-bed maternity center and a 32-bed emergency department (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 11/12).

RotaCare Clinic, Pittsburg

Ten Contra Costa County Rotary clubs are collaborating with the not-for-profit group St. Vincent de Paul to open a new no-cost health clinic in Pittsburg, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Volunteer physicians and nurses will staff the clinic, which will target communities in Antioch, Bay Point, Oakley and Pittsburg. The health center also will offer laboratory and pharmacy services.

Barbara Hunt, development director for St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa, said Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch and Bank of America have provided donations for the clinic (Radin, San Jose Mercury News, 11/12).

San Francisco VA Medical Center

The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco is considering a plan to relocate from its 1.1 million square-foot campus near the Golden Gate Bridge to a more spacious property in the Mission Bay area, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

Last month, VA officials launched a six-month study to evaluate possible new locations for San Francisco's VA Medical Center. Officials are eyeing a location near Mission Bay because VA Medical Center has close ties with UC-San Francisco. The city's existing VA facility -- which serves about 32,000 veterans annually -- has 124 operating beds and 120 nursing home beds (Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, 11/11).

Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla

On Nov. 17, officials announced a $2 billion plan to rebuild Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla over the next 25 years, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The plan aims to help the hospital comply with state seismic safety standards and remain competitive in the regional health care market.

The project involves razing the old hospital and replacing it with three towers, two medical buildings and an outpatient pavilion. The first eight-story tower, which will be a 168-bed cardiovascular institute, is expected to open in 2015. Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla represents the largest of several of Scripps' planned construction projects (Lavelle, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11/17).

Seton Medical Center, Daly City

On Wednesday, nurses and other employees facing layoffs at Seton Medical Center picketed to encourage the hospital to avoid cutting jobs, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

In October, the hospital decided to close its skilled-nursing unit because of financial constraints. No patients currently receive care in the unit, which officially will close on Dec. 6. More than 50 employees stand to lose their jobs in the unit.

Service Employees International Union -- which represents many workers at SMC -- has urged the hospital to consider alternatives to layoffs, including retraining and voluntary early retirement. Seton spokesperson Beth Volz said affected workers who cannot find another job within the health system will receive a severance package (Gonzales, San Jose Mercury News, 11/15).