California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of Sept. 26, 2008
Biggs-Gridley Memorial Hospital, Gridley
Biggs-Gridley Memorial Hospital has raised $250,000 to help maintain inpatient services at the facility, according to Ed Becker, chair of the Biggs-Gridley hospital foundation, the Marysville Appeal-Democrat reports.
In addition, the Gridley City Council last week approved a $300,000 line of credit for the hospital foundation.
The fundraising efforts come in response to Fremont-Rideout Health Group's Aug. 26 announcement that it would terminate inpatient services at the Gridley facility because of low patient counts and expenses (Yune, Marysville Appeal-Democrat, 9/22).
Eisenhower Medical Center, Rancho Mirage
Eisenhower Medical Center is terminating its contract with the state to treat some Medi-Cal beneficiaries, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.
Michael Landes, president of the hospital's foundation, said that Medi-Cal payments are inadequate and do not cover the cost of treatment at the hospital. Beneficiaries whose benefits are not administered by managed care plans will be most affected by the change, Landes said (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 9/23).
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Los Angeles
Last week, USC's Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen Puliafito said that he had received assurance from county officials that sufficient staffing would be available at County-USC Medical Center when it opened fully on Oct. 17, the Los Angeles Times reports.Â
In a letter to county supervisors earlier in the week, Puliafito voiced concerns about the hospital's staffing (Lin, Los Angeles Times, 9/19).
San Joaquin General Hospital, Stockton
San Joaquin General Hospital reported a loss of $18.5 million for the fiscal year that began in July 2007, a figure that was less than it had expected, the Stockton Record reports.
The Camden Group consulting firm estimated that the hospital would lose $24.1 million by the end of the year.
Officials said they cut the loss partly by reducing patient days in the intensive care unit (Johnson, Stockton Record, 9/19).
UCSF Medical Center
Last week, the UC Board of Regents approved the development of the UCSF hospital complex at Mission Bay, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The complex will open in 2014 and will be a combination of three specialty hospitals serving women, children and cancer patients (Laret, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/19). 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.