Latest California Healthline Stories
Laguna Honda Receives Grant To Help Train Personnel on New Discharge Policies
Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco will begin retraining its staff to discharge “more able” patients into community-based treatment programs using a $50,000 grant from the California HealthCare Foundation, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
Judge Approves Plan To Restructure Debt of Santa Paula Hospital
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robin Riblet on Wednesday ruled that a plan to restructure Santa Paula Memorial Hospital’s debt could go to the hospital’s creditors for a vote, the Ventura County Star reports.
Jurors in Alvarado, Tenet Case Say They Are Deadlocked; Motion To Dismiss Denied
Jurors in a case against an Alvarado Hospital Medical Center administrator and Tenet HealthSystem Hospitals, a Tenet Healthcare subsidiary, on Monday indicated that deliberations had deadlocked, Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times reports.
President Bush To Name Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford as Permanent Agency Head
President Bush on Monday announced that he would nominate FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford as the permanent head of the agency, “despite drug safety problems on Crawford’s watch that have undermined the agency’s reputation and credibility,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Younger Physicians Provide Higher-Quality Care Than Older Physicians, Analysis Finds
Previous research suggests that older doctors tend to provide lower-quality care than younger doctors who recently graduated from medical school, according to a “provocative” Harvard Medical School analysis in Tuesday’s Annals of Internal Medicine, the Boston Globe reports.
Flu vaccinations for individuals ages 65 and older might not reduce flu-related mortality rates as much as previously thought, according to a study published on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Los Angeles Times reports.
WellPoint Health Networks Study Links COX-2 Inhibitors To Increased Cardiovascular Risks
WellPoint Health Networks this week released a study that linked the COX-2 inhibitors Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra to increased cardiovascular risk, “reinforcing findings of other trials” as two FDA advisory committees on Wednesday plan to begin meetings on the medications, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America last week committed to spend $10 million to put three initiatives, including a prescription drug measure, on the next statewide ballot, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The five members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have “expressed dissatisfaction” with the performance of the consulting firm Camden Group at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles in part because problems with the nurse staff persisted at the facility after the firm was hired to address lapses in patient care, the Los Angeles Times reports.
NIH Director Zerhouni Suggests Conflicts-of-Interest Summit
In an interview discussing new NIH guidelines to curb conflicts of interest, agency Director Elias Zerhouni suggested a summit of academic and government leaders to address the issue, the Los Angeles Times reports.