Latest California Healthline Stories
Groups Prepare To Seek Funds From Ballot Measure To Expand Mental Health Services
Groups including the California Mental Health Directors Association have begun planning how to win funding under Proposition 63, a state ballot measure approved Nov. 2 that raises the state’s personal income tax by 1% on annual incomes that exceed $1 million to fund mental health services, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Ballot Measure To Fund Stem Cell Research Raises Concerns About Funding, Benefits
Opponents and supporters of Proposition 71, a bond measure that was approved by voters Nov. 2 to fund stem cell research, have voiced concern that the measure “contains inadequate safeguards” to ensure that funding is granted ethically and that the public will benefit from the research, the New York Times reports.
Reedley farmer Dan Gerawan has filed a legal action with Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) seeking permission to sue Daniel Zingale to remove him from his position with the Agriculture Labor Relations Board, alleging that consulting work Zingale did for the campaign opposing Proposition 67 violated a state law that prohibits board members from engaging in “any other business, vocation or employment,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
Drug offenders who underwent treatment under Proposition 36 were 48% more likely to be arrested for another nonviolent drug-related crime within a year of starting treatment, compared with rehabilitation clients who opted for treatment under supervision of probation or parole, according to a report published Friday in the journal Criminology and Public Policy, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Sutter Health Attributes Reduced Medication Errors to Bar-Coding Program
A medication bar-coding program at Sutter Health hospitals has helped prevent 28,000 medication errors, 2,600 of which could have caused moderate or serious harm, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday profiled Curtis Selby — a California resident who chooses to be uninsured because of his religious beliefs — and examines how his tactic of negotiating with providers over the cost of his care highlights “what millions of Americans may soon be doing.”
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Votes To Close King/Drew Medical Center Trauma Unit
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-0 to close the trauma center at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, despite protests from community members, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Doctors Medical Center San Pablo/Pinole CEO Announces Improved Finances, Plans for Expansion
Doctors Medical Center San Pablo/Pinole has “stanched the flow” of recent financial losses in the three months after the West Contra Costa Healthcare District assumed control of operations from Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare and likely will expand, hospital CEO Irwin Hansen said this week, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Officials from Western Medical Center-Santa Ana on Tuesday asked the Orange County Board of Supervisors to investigate the sale to Integrated Healthcare Holdings of four Orange County hospitals by Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Experts React to CDC Admission That Study Overstated Number of Obesity-Related Deaths
Several government and public health experts on Tuesday responded to an internal CDC investigation that determined a widely quoted agency study on obesity that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association inflated the number of deaths related to obesity by tens of thousands because of statistical errors, USA Today reports.