California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of October 4, 2013
Hanford Medical Pavilion
On Sept. 18, the Adventist Health-Breast Care Center at the Hanford Medical Pavilion unveiled the ACUSON S2000 automated breast volume scanner, a 3D ultrasound machine that detects breast cancer quicker and more accurately than 2D machines, The Business Journal reports.
Amy Marks -- nurse and breast care coordinator -- said that the new machine provides complete images of both breasts and their physical structures from multiple viewpoints within minutes, while 2D ultrasounds need between 20 and 30 minutes to provide a scan of just one breast. In addition, the 3D machine is more cost effective than an MRI scan and does not expose patients to radiation, Marks said (The Business Journal [1], 9/18).
Madera Community Hospital, Fresno
On Sept. 18, the Red and Nancy Arnold Foundation donated $3 million in asset holdings to Madera Community Hospital, a health care system that includes a 106-bed center in Fresno and several specialty clinics in Madera and Chowchilla, The Business Journal reports.
The donation is the third from the foundation, which donated $100,000 in June 2012 and $1 million in December 2012 (The Business Journal [2], 9/18).
MemorialCare Health System; UC-Irvine Health
On Wednesday, the University of California Board of Regents said that it has approved an affiliation between UC-Irvine Health and MemorialCare Health System, the Los Angeles Times' "Money & Co." reports.
The affiliation is not a merger and both systems will remain independent, according to the board (Terhune, "Money & Co.," Los Angeles Times, 10/2).
The systems will jointly open an unspecified number of primary care health centers in Southern California.
MemorialCare will operate the centers, which will be staffed by UC-Irvine primary care physicians and designed to complement existing UC-Irvine practices in Orange and Irvine counties.
Officials are currently scouting locations, and the centers could open within the next year, according to UC-Irvine CEO Terry Belmont (Selvam, Modern Healthcare, 10/2).
Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, San Diego
On Sept. 24, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital launched a $12.4 million renovation effort that will emphasize outdoor space development, increased privacy and treatment services for older patients, U-T San Diego reports.
The Sharp HealthCare Foundation has currently secured $616,000 of its $2 million fundraising goal for the project and still is accepting donations (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 9/24).
Sutter Health
On Sept. 27, the California Nurses Association said that it had reached a tentative contract agreement for more than 3,000 nurses and technicians at five Bay Area Sutter Health hospitals, including Alta Bates Summit facilities in Berkeley and Oakland, Castro Valley's Eden Medical Center, Sutter Solano in Vallejo and Antioch's Sutter Delta Medical Center, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports (Rauber, Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 9/27).
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the agreement averted a strike that was scheduled to begin on Sept. 24 and last 10 days (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/28).
UCSF Medical Center and Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland
UC-San Francisco Medical Center's Benioff Children's Hospital has partnered with Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland to jointly run and expand an Oakland-based medical group, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports.
The health systems aim to create a new network that will extend the service area of the 87-physician group, called BayChildren's Physicians (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 10/1).
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