Hospital News Roundup for April 27
A group of physicians in San Jose plan to invest $50 million to open a short-stay hospital and a medical office building with eight operating suites, the San Jose Business Journal reports.
The hospital will be called the California Center for Healthcare and Biomedical Technology and will focus on orthopedic, cardiovascular and oncology care.
Kristen Swilley -- a physician relations specialist for Cirrus Health, the owner of the physician group - said 30 physicians have agreed to become partners in the new hospital, which will be 80% physician-owned (Graebner, San Jose Business Journal, 4/23).
Federal officials have granted Fresno County a 30-day extension to resolve issues related to the use of federally matched funds for the county-owned Community Medical Centers, the Fresno Bee reports.
The county last year distributed to Community a lump-sum payment of about $18 million to help the hospital balance its budget and leverage additional federal matching funds for Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program. In past years, the county distributed the funding in monthly installments that were used to pay for care for indigents and prison inmates.
CMS officials in January questioned the redistribution of the funds and gave the state a mid-April deadline to resolve the issue.
The state Department of Health Services is attempting to reach an agreement that would allow the hospital system to keep the funding (Correa, Fresno Bee, 4/24).
Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital is seeking approval from the Santa Clarita City Council for a 25-year construction plan that includes tripling the size of the campus, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
City planning commissioners approved the plan last year. Critics of the proposal have raised concerns about the proportion of medical offices to hospital space in the plan.
An ongoing study is examining the issue, and the council will consider the plan in June (O'Rourke, Los Angeles Daily News, 4/22).
Union representatives for nurses at seven Sharp HealthCare Hospitals in San Diego on Monday began negotiations with hospital administrators over a contract renewal, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
The current contract expires June 30 and covers about 3,400 staff nurses.
The negotiations likely will focus on increasing staffing ratios above the state minimum and revising rules governing when union officials can meet with nurses inside hospitals (Darcé, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/24).
Sutter Health is planning to build a $200 million medical campus in Elk Grove that will include medical offices and an outpatient surgery center, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The project requires approval from state and city officials.
Sutter officials say they could open a 62-bed hospital by 2011 on the proposed campus, with an outpatient care and surgery center and medical offices to be completed earlier.
The hospital would have the capacity to add 34 more patient beds. If the facility is expanded, the number of patient beds could increase to 120 (Kalb, Sacramento Bee, 4/25).