Children's Hospital Central California, Madera
Materials Management Microsystems has awarded Children's Hospital Central California the designation of "Center of Excellence" for sterile processing, The Business Journal reports.
Materials evaluated hospitals based on 26 measures of sterile processing competency.
This year, Children's was the only hospital to earn the designation (The Business Journal, 9/5).
Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Fresno
On Tuesday, a Fresno County Superior Court jury found Kaiser Permanente Medical Center partially responsible for a patient being unaware that he had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the Fresno Bee reports.
The jury found Kaiser to be 30% negligent, determining that 27-year-old Dusten Chevalier is 70% responsible for his medical condition. Kaiser must pay $1.5 million in damages.
Kaiser in an email said that the hospital could not inform Chevalier of his condition because he provided inaccurate contact information. In addition, Kaiser said that Chevalier failed to keep two follow-up appointments with infectious disease and urology specialists.
Chevalier's attorneys said he could not be reached because he was staying with a relative who ended up losing her home.
They also said that Chevalier called Kaiser about the two appointments. According to the attorneys, Chevalier was told that each appointment would cost $100 because he was not a Kaiser member and that he could not pay for them in installments (Lopez, Fresno Bee, 9/4).
Tri-City Healthcare District
The Tri-City Healthcare District is asking Medical Acquisition Company to prove that it has enough money to complete an $18 million project to build an office building on Tri-City Medical Center's campus, U-T San Diego reports.
The district has given MAC until the middle of September to submit financial documentation or default on the construction agreement.
Duane Horning, attorney for MAC, in a letter to the district's board of directors wrote that MAC has lived up to the requirements in the agreement and that the building is nearly completed "on time, within budget and far ahead of schedule" (Burgin, U-T San Diego, 9/5).
UC-Davis Medical Center, Sacramento
On Tuesday, UC-Davis Medical Center opened a new primary care clinic in Campus Commons as part of an initiative to boost primary care services ahead of implementation of the federal health reform law, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The initiative also includes efforts to increase the number of physicians in the university's Primary Care Network, expand certain clinics to accommodate more patients and add facilities.
In addition, a joint venture between the medical center and Fremont-Rideout Health Group will allow UC-Davis primary care physicians to practice in a new clinic expected to open in Yuba City in late October (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 8/31).