California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of November 2, 2012
Children's Hospital Central California, Madera
Children's Hospital Central California has received Energy Star certification for meeting energy efficiency requirements developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, The Business Journal reports.
The certification signifies that the facility is using energy more efficiently than 93% of all U.S. hospitals.
To earn the certification, the hospital retrofitted its lighting, upgraded to digital environmental controls, conducted an energy use awareness campaign for workers and implemented a new energy management program (The Business Journal, 10/25).
Dignity Health
Dignity Health -- formerly known as Catholic Healthcare West -- has halted negotiations to acquire Ashland Community Hospital in Oregon, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 10/30).
Neither party cited specific reasons for the decision. However, a Dignity release said that the organizations "were not able to reach an agreement on the final closing conditions for the merger and have decided to end negotiations" (Selvam, Modern Healthcare, 10/30).
Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center
Last weekend, Kaiser Permanente's San Diego Medical Center began transferring patients to its new $20 million neonatal intensive care unit, U-T San Diego reports.
The new unit contains private patient rooms instead of one large room with rows of clear plastic isolettes like the existing NICU. The rooms in the new unit also have fold-out beds so that family members can stay overnight (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 10/26).
Seton Medical Center
Daughters of Charity Health System -- the parent company of Seton Medical Center -- in October donated $284,347 to support a half-cent sales tax hike proposal in San Mateo County, known as Measure A, according to campaign disclosure documents released last week, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The documents show that Seton contributed $5,039 worth of staff time to support the measure.
According to the Mercury News, Seton hopes to receive a subsidy from the tax hike to help finance a seismic safety upgrade project (Eslinger, San Jose Mercury News, 10/27). 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.