Latest California Healthline Stories
Hospital Tax May Go to Reserve
The state budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown extends the Hospital Quality Assurance fee, which is due to expire at the end of 2013. The complicated fee structure was originally planned to gather about $2.8 billion from private hospitals over the 30-month life of the fee. Some of the money is used to tap federal matching money, which benefits both hospitals and the state.
The state estimates extending the fee would add $310 million to the state’s general fund in fiscal year 2013-14.
Private hospitals have no problem paying the Hospital Quality Assurance fee, according to Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president of external affairs for the California Hospital Association.
Online Game Asks Players To Design Hospital of the Future
A crowdsourcing game staged by the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto attracted more than 600 players from disparate parts of the world who compared and competed with ideas about what hospitals should look like in the future.
California Health Care Workers Divided Over Flu Vaccine Requirements for Hospital Staff
Zenei Cortez of the California Nurses Association, Jan Emerson-Shea of the California Hospital Association, Shawn Evans of Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla and Linda Good of Scripps Health spoke with California Healthline about the challenges that California hospitals face in raising influenza vaccination rates among health care workers.
How Can Hospitals Thrive in Future?
The first step in dealing with complex financial and care issues faced by community hospitals is to get people engaged and talking about them, according to the organizers of tomorrow’s online “Future of the Hospital” game. People will compete to present the most cogent and worthwhile ideas for improving hospitals in California and the nation.
Starting tomorrow morning and running for 24 hours, the Institute for the Future is putting on an online forecasting competition to prompt possible solutions for community hospitals with a discussion involving as many people as possible. The event is co-sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation, which publishes California Healthline.
“As federal funding for hospitals nationwide dwindles, so does our ability to access basic care in hospitals,” said Jean Hagan, an executive producer for the Institute for the Future. “Our emergency medical system is over-burdened, underfunded and fragmented. The statistics are frightening.”
California Hospitals Team Up on Disaster Plans, but Federal Budget Cuts Could Affect Efforts
Cheri Hummel of the California Hospital Association, Kurt Kainsinger of UCLA Healthcare System, Claudia Marroquin-Frometa of Centinela Hospital Medical Center and Lisa Schoenthal of the California Emergency Medical Services Authority spoke with California Healthline about how California hospitals are forming partnerships to strengthen their disaster preparedness plans.
High Desert Hospitals Fighting for Financial Solvency
Three rural, stand-alone hospitals in the Inland Empire’s High Desert are facing serious financial challenges. Victor Valley Community Hospital in Victorville, Colorado River Medical Center in Needles and Hi-Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree are pursuing different strategies to regain financial solvency.
California Hospitals Expanding Their Palliative Care Offerings To Improve Care, Reduce Costs
Parag Bharadwaj of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Judy Citko of the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, Suzi Johnson of Sharp HospiceCare and Steven Oppenheim of the Institute of Palliative Medicine spoke with California Healthline about the growth of palliative care services in California.
‘No Debate,’ Cleveland Clinic’s Great. But How To Replicate?
At last week’s debate, both President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney agreed on one point: The Cleveland Clinic is a model for U.S. health care. But the men had different visions for how to realize similar reforms.
FTC, Calif. AG Put Pressure on M&A — and Confuse Providers
Compete — or consolidate? Lawmakers can’t seem to decide which approach they want hospitals and doctors to follow, and the mixed messages are causing confusion.
UC-San Diego Program Focuses on Designing Medical Devices
A new master’s degree program at UC-San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is designed to help working engineers meet the evolving demands of one of San Diego’s fastest-growing industries — medical device design and manufacturing.