California Hospital News Roundup for Oct. 23, 2009

Bay Area Surgical Group, Campbell

During a Campbell City Council meeting on Oct. 6, several Campbell-area medical professionals voiced concerns about an amendment to the city's zoning ordinances that would allow a  physician-owned specialty hospital to be built in a commercial manufacturing zone, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The proposed project -- which is being planned by Bobby Sarnevesht of the Bay Area Surgical Group -- involves a 70,000 square-foot facility. 

A formal proposal has not been submitted for approval (Vongsarath, San Jose Mercury News, 10/15).

Enloe Medical Center, Chico

Enloe Medical Center is alerting patients about the threat of identity theft after paperwork containing patient information was stolen from a shredding bin at the facility, the Oroville Mercury Register reports.

The paperwork documented ambulance runs between Oct. 8 and Oct. 12.

Police say an unknown suspect removed the hinges from a storage container and then stole the paperwork from the top of the bin (Welter, Oroville Mercury Register, 10/19).

Kaiser Permanente, Kearny Mesa

On Monday, Kaiser Permanente closed escrow on a 175,000 square-foot building in Kearny Mesa, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Although the terms were not disclosed, the county assessor-record-clerk's office said the value of the property, based on property-transfer taxes, was about $53.3 million.

Casey Hart, a spokesperson with Kaiser, said departments such as podiatry, orthopedics and pain management will begin moving to the new facility in 2010, with a second phase scheduled for 2011 (Showley, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/20).

March LifeCare, Riverside

The March Joint Powers Authority has asked the developer of a proposed medical complex at March Air Reserve Base to stop using the JPA's name and logo in an advertising campaign aimed at boosting public support for the project, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.

Officials for March JPA said using its logo and name in the ads could suggest a conflict of interest.  March Joint Powers Authority is the public agency charged with reviewing the project.

March JPA could make a decision on whether to approve the 3.5 million square-foot project as early as November.

The complex would include a hospital and retail space, and officials say it would create about 14,000 jobs and have a $2 billion economic impact on the area (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 10/19).

Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento

Last month, CMS recertified Sutter Medical Center's heart transplant program, allowing Medicare patients to once again undergo heart transplants at the facility, the Sacramento Bee repots.

Earlier this year, CMS cut off Medicare funding for the hospital's heart transplant program because it did not perform 10 transplants per year, the minimum required to participate in Medicare (Tong, Sacramento Bee, 10/21).

Vista Hospital of Riverside, Perris

CMS has extended the deadline for Vista Hospital of Riverside to demonstrate that it has addressed problems inspectors identified earlier this year, the Press-Enterprise reports.

The original deadline for the hospital to show that it had corrected the problems was Oct. 18.

CEO James Linares said hospital administrators hoped to address CMS' concerns by today.

The hospital could lose eligibility to participate in Medicare if it does not satisfactorily address CMS' concerns (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 10/21).