Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has started work on its $84 million transformation of Irvine Regional Hospital Medical Center into Hoag Hospital Irvine.
Hoag Hospital Irvine is slated to open next year.
Hoag said the renovation will include new operating rooms, nursing floors and imaging equipment, along with rebuilding pre- and post-surgery and recovery areas and creating space for new medical technologies. Specialty offerings also will be part of the hospital, including orthopedics and sports medicine.
Hoag took over the 244,000-square-foot hospital’s lease about a year ago after former operator Tenet Healthcare Corp. bowed out.
Tenet said it was walking away from Irvine Regional after it was unable to come to terms with its Long Beach-based landlord, HCP Inc., as well as increased competition. In May 2008, Kaiser Permanente, the Oakland-based not-for-profit that operates OC’s largest health maintenance organization, opened a big hospital across the street from Irvine Regional at Sand Canyon and Alton. Irvine Regional previously took care of Kaiser’s overflow patients.
Hoag will be adding 175 beds through Irvine Regional, knocking out plans for an expansion in Newport Beach, Chief Executive Richard Afable said in an interview last year.
“There was no need for us to spend what was then a $390 million investment,” Afable said.
In that interview, Afable said that there were “significant improvements” that needed to be made to the hospital before it could be reopened.
“Unfortunately, the facility has not been kept functionally modern. It is, other than the walls, a complete redo,” he said.
New information systems, Afable said, would be part of the renovation.
“Hospitals, just like a bank or just like an airport, are absolutely dependent on electronic transfer of information,” Afable said.
Hoag plans to operate Hoag Irvine on the same license as Newport Beach.
Health Insurance Investors
A mid-August rally among health insurance stocks looked like it was fueled by expected performance increases, analysts who follow the sector said.
There had been talk that the Obama administration’s proposed healthcare reform would create competition for private insurers, but that doesn’t appear to deter investors.
A CBS MarketWatch article quoted analysts as saying that investors in health insurance companies were ignoring conflicting reports from senior administration officials about whether they’d go through with a taxpayer-sponsored public insurance plan, which has generated a great deal of opposition from the public.
“On Monday you wake up and the public option seems to be off the table, then by Tuesday it’s back on. How can you invest on that data? You can’t. So what you end up doing is looking at valuations and earnings,” said David Shove, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets Corp., in the article.
The article noted that many major health insurers, including UnitedHealth Group Inc., which has a large presence in Cypress, had outpaced the Standard & Poor’s 500 in the week ended Aug. 21. UnitedHealth’s shares were up 3.1%, compared to the 2.2% gain posted by the S&P 500.
Test Results for Zenvia
Aliso Viejo drug maker Avanir Pharma-ceuticals Inc. said that its Zenvia drug candidate is performing on target in its third-phase clinical trial. Avanir is developing Zenvia to treat uncontrollable fits of crying or laughter, or involuntary emotional expression disorder.
Avanir said that two formulations of Zenvia that it’s testing provided a statistically significant reduction in emotional episode rates during the course of the study when compared to a placebo.
The test results should be enough to satisfy requirements from the Food and Drug Administration. It expects to submit the response in the first half of 2010.
Avanir has seen a few ups and downs in the past as it’s sought to develop Zenvia. When the FDA sent its approvable letter, it expressed concerns about whether Zenvia’s active ingredient, an enzyme inhibitor that helped to increase the availability of another drug, could lead to heart problems.
Regulators asked for more testing, and Avanir cut 16% of its workforce in order to reduce its cash burn rate. Avanir said in early 2007 that the FDA asked it to hold a new clinical trial to test a revised Zenvia formulation.
Bits and Pieces:
Gustavo Valdespino, a former senior vice president at Tenet Healthcare’s Santa Ana regional office, was named chief executive of Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. Valdespino’s most recent job was chief executive of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County … SafetyNet Connect, a Newport Beach healthcare information technology joint venture made up of ELM Technologies and NetChemistry, said it created an information technology system for Access OC, a nonprofit that provides specialty medical care and surgery to low-income, uninsured county residents.
