California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of February 10, 2012
Community Health Systems
On Saturday, Community Health Systems -- a federally qualified health center -- will hold an open house and health fair to mark the opening of its new Magnolia Community Health Center in Riverside, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
The Magnolia center is one of two new not-for-profit clinics that the health system plans to open in Riverside. The new clinic will offer electronic health records and electronic dental records (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 2/4).
El Camino Hospital, Mountain View
On Wednesday, the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West launched a signature drive to put a measure on the November ballot to cap El Camino Hospital executives' annual salaries, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Carlyn Foster -- a union spokesperson -- said that as of Wednesday evening, 5,100 signatures were collected. The measure needs 9,100 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Â
The initiative would affect the salaries of as many as nine hospital executives, each of whom make more than $200,000 annually, not including bonuses.
SEIU-UHW said it wants to ensure that taxpayer funding is not funneled into excessively high salaries.
A spokesperson from El Camino Hospital could not be reached for comment (Green, San Jose Mercury News, 2/9).
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose
On Tuesday, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors agreed to make a one-time, $30 million payment out of the county's general fund to help resolve an unexpected $58 million deficit at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The medical center would make up the remainder of its deficit with $15 million in hospital revenue and $13 million in cuts.
Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith said the hospital's cutbacks would not involve layoffs but some positions would go unfilled. He added that some nurses might be asked to reduce their overtime and part-time hours (Seipel, San Jose Mercury News, 2/7).
Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
Sacramento-based Sutter Medical Center announced it received the Society of Chest Pain Centers' full atrial fibrilation certification status, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The hospital is the first in California and the second in the nation to receive the certification.
David Roberts, medical director of the Sutter Heart & Vascular Institute, said the hospital has become "a national leader in the recognition, management and treatment"Â of atrial fibrilation (Glover, Sacramento Bee, 2/9).
Telecare La Casa Psychiatric Health Facility, Long Beach
On Wednesday, about 200 employees at Telecare La Casa Psychiatric Health Facility in Long Beach voted in favor of joining SEIU-UHW, News-Medical reports.
The employees are seeking improvements in worker safety and patient care.
In the coming weeks, SEIU-UHW and the workers will meet to negotiate a new labor contract with Telecare (News-Medical, 2/9).
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