Latest California Healthline Stories
Harold Miller of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement Discusses Innovation
Harold Miller, president and CEO of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, spoke with California Healthline about the importance of pursuing innovative health care improvement strategies that are tailored to local needs.
Senate Hearing Tackles Flu Vaccination Rate
It’s important to the general public that health care workers receive influenza inoculations, according to Senate member Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who was recently before the Senate Committee on Health to introduce SB 1318, which she hopes will increase the vaccination rate among health care professionals.
The bill would protect “our most vulnerable patients — infants, seniors and those who are immune-compromised,” Wolk said. “It would ensure that health care workers receive the influenza vaccination, or wear a mask during influenza season. It’s a choice: Get vaccinated, or wear the mask. We want to decrease the deaths from influenza, and increase the safety at hospitals.”
The California Nurses’ Association and the Service Employees International Union are against the policy, in part because they see it as singling out people who opt out of getting the vaccine, by making them wear a mask in patient care areas.
Community Rallies To Keep Kern Residency Program on Track
When the biggest hospital in Kern County decided to cut back its family practice residency program, the rural community reacted quickly and loudly, forcing the Bakersfield hospital to reinstate the program to its previous level.
Solution to Physician Shortage May Lie in Mid-Level Practitioners
Ed Hernandez, an optometrist, can see it coming.
The Democrat Senate member from West Covina yesterday helped convene the second hearing in a week to explore the looming shortage of primary care providers in California. The addition of millions of newly insured along with a likely decline in the number of physicians in California is an equation that worries Hernandez. He said the gap is unlikely to be filled in traditional ways.
“Last week we looked at the shortage of providers in California, a shortage that will not lessen,” Hernandez said yesterday at a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Health and the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development.
Trying To Provide Solutions to Patient Access
California is in a bit of a fix, according to Senate member Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chair of the Senate Committee on Health.
The state doesn’t have enough physicians and other primary care providers now, according to some estimates. That shortage will become more acute in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act brings up to four million newly insured Californians into the system, looking for providers to care for them.
“2014 is essentially here,” Hernandez said yesterday at a Senate health committee hearing on primary care workforce issues. “We have had a historic piece of legislation pass at the federal level, the most historic health legislation since the Lyndon Johnson administration, when the Medicare Act was passed. But there are a lot of unknowns still, including how to implement it.”
Is California Ready for Millions of Newly Insured?
Not only does the state face a challenge in training enough health care workers to care for millions of newly insured Californians in 2014, state officials also have to figure out how to distribute the workforce efficiently, according to the Center for the Health Professions at UC-San Francisco.
Kim Dempsey of NCB Capital Impact Discusses Ways To Boost Capacity of Community Clinics
Kim Dempsey, director of innovation and strategy at NCB Capital Impact, spoke with California Healthline about recommendations for improving the operations of community health centers.
Health Care Lobbying in California Tops List in Record Year
Health care issues generated $35.7 million in lobbying last year in California, leading the way to a record year. Lobbyists earned more money from more clients in California in 2011 than ever before, according to the secretary of state.
Health Care Reform Driving Physicians Together
Hospitals increasingly are employing physicians, while independent doctors are teaming up to jointly contract with health insurers — driven in large part by the Affordable Care Act. Both trends have led to larger provider networks, though the effect on health care costs is not yet clear.
Central Valley Residency May Stay Open
Paul Hensler, CEO of Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, said yesterday he plans to keep the family practice residency program intact.
Two weeks ago, the hospital announced it was closing that residency program to the incoming class of six residents, though the program itself would continue. Yesterday, Hensler said he and community members have been working hard to come up with a solution to keep the program.
“There are two scenarios,” Hensler said, “to either make the [Family Practice] department more cost-effective, or to develop a collaborative program with the community here.”