California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of October 16, 2009
Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Oakland
Kaiser Permanente will not renew its contract with Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland when it expires next year, the Contra Costa Times reports. Starting July 1, nonemergency heart surgeries for Kaiser Permanente patients living in the East San Francisco Bay Area will be performed at Kaiser facilities in San Francisco and Santa Clara (Kleffman, Contra Costa Times, 10/14).
Catholic Healthcare West
Catholic Healthcare West has asked the state to push back deadlines to meet state seismic safety deadlines at its 41 hospitals because of financial challenges, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
The lobbying push comes as CHW announced that it lost $126 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, after posting $891 million in profit in 2007 (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 10/9).
Children's Hospital of Los Angeles
A foundation started by Guess? co-founder Maurice Marciano pledged $10 million toward the construction of a new hospital building, the Torrance Daily Breeze reports.
The seven-story, 318-bed building is 80% complete and expected to open in 2011. About $190 million of the $250 million fundraising goal for the project has been raised (Torrance Daily Breeze, 10/13).
Downey Regional Medical Center
After failing to provide financial statements for the past three fiscal years, Standard & Poor's downgraded Downey Regional Medical Center from CCC to C and suspended its credit rating, Modern Healthcare reports.
Management at the 181-bed facility said that the financial statements would not be available until January, according to S&P analyst Ken Gacka (Evans, Modern Healthcare, 10/14).
Loma Linda University Medical Center
Loma Linda University Medical Center has begun offering services at its new 85,000-square foot Highland Springs Medical Plaza in Beaumont as part of an effort to relieve pressure on the main Loma Linda campus, the San Bernardino County Sun reports.
The new facility includes an outpatient surgery center, an imaging center, a clinical laboratory and other features. Construction took two years and cost more than $29 million. Loma Linda next hopes to open a 106-bed facility in Murrieta in 2011 (Wall, San Bernardino County Sun, 10/9).
UC-Davis Medical Center
UC-Davis Medical Center and two Mercy facilities -- Mercy San Juan Medical Center and Methodist Hospital -- are forming a partnership aimed at broadening access to pediatric care at area hospitals, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The three-year partnership will allow UC-Davis to station pediatricians at the Mercy facilities and provide its specialized pediatric care through teleconferencing (Calvan, Sacramento Bee, 10/13). 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.