UCI Takes Part in Genome Study; TriZetto Signs Pact
An Orange County lawmaker is looking to address the area’s nursing shortage via higher education.
Assemblyman Lou Correa is sponsoring a bill that he says will help resolve the shortage through a public-private partnership between the state and Orange County hospitals. The measure, if passed, would combine funds from the state and hospitals to boost the numbers of nursing student slots at Santa Ana College, Saddleback College and California State University, Fullerton.
“We’re trying to get more students into nursing quickly,” Correa said. “But there’s a bottleneck at the community colleges. The conclusion was that we go back to basics and (secure more) resources.”
Nursing is a big concern for hospitals and healthcare facilities because the average age of a registered nurse in California is close to 50. And women, who make up the majority of nurses, have other career options. A new state law mandating nurse-to-patient staffing ratios also is raising concerns in the healthcare industry.
Correa, an Anaheim Democrat, estimates that OC has a shortage of around 1,000 nurses. He said he still is working on details of his bill and didn’t yet have numbers on how many school slots would be covered if the bill becomes law.
As for the idea of the bill, Correa said it came from a meeting last April with former Assemblyman Martin Gallegos, D-Baldwin Park, where presentations were made about OC and its nursing shortage.
Twenty-two Orange County hospitals have agreed to support the program, according to Correa’s office. He said those included St. Joseph Hospital-Orange, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, St. Jude Medical Center, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center and Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center.
Correa called the nursing issue a non-partisan one and said that Assembly Minority Leader Bill Campbell, R-Villa Park, was the bill’s co-author. He predicted his proposal should have wide support because of Campbell’s involvement and the private-public partnership, among other things.
Separately, the California Healthcare Association announced it was sponsoring two nursing bills of its own. One of the bills would give the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development money to expand existing nursing education programs.
The association’s other bill would require chancellors of the California Community Colleges and the California State University systems to standardize all nursing program prerequisites between the two systems, enter into transfer agreements between the systems and create and implement a statewide nursing program vacancy information system.
UCI in Genome Research
Robert Moyzis, a biological chemistry professor at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine, took part in a study that may give new clues to how cells become cancerous.
Moyzis, along with researchers from Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England, and the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, found that the ends of chromosomes contained more active genes than once thought.
Specifically, the researchers learned that areas of chromosomes that connect to the tips had genetically active DNA sequences. For years, it was believed that such areas consisted of non-functioning “junk DNA.”
Findings from the study are part of the Human Genome Project’s final stages of mapping genetic material and could provide insight into how cancer and aging are influenced by genes. The work appeared in a recent issue of Nature magazine devoted to genetics.
Bits and Pieces:
TriZetto Group, Newport Beach, signed a contract extension with The Preferred Health Network, a subsidiary of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of Maryland. TriZetto will provide an application services provider version of Erisco’s Facets system. TriZetto acquired Erisco and the Facets system last October Apria Healthcare Group Inc., Costa Mesa, entered a partnership with Vision Solutions, Irvine. Apria is pairing up with Vision Solutions on beta testing of the latter’s Vision Suite software for information availability UCI Medical Center, Orange, said its regional burn center received verification from the American College of Surgeons’ committee on trauma and the American Burn Association. Verified burn centers have to meet criteria that ensure treatment capability and institutional performance ChromaVision Medical Systems Inc., San Clemente, signed a contract with Pathology Service Associates LLC of Florence, S.C. ChromaVision and Pathology Service Associates will jointly market ChromaVision’s automated cell-imaging system to a nationwide network of independent pathology practices CoolMed Products Inc., Irvine, appointed Gradco Technology Ltd. as its Asian distributor. CoolMed is a supplier of self-cooling compression sports and medical products Brea Community Hospital opened a dedicated unit for total joint replacement surgery. The unit, which has the capacity for 12 patients, performs hip and knee replacements on an inpatient basis VitalCom Inc., Tustin, said its PatientNet monitoring system is now being used by New York-Presbyterian Hospital Dr. Maria Minon, vice president of medical affairs for Children’s Hospital of Orange County, is the new chairwoman of the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, Santa Ana.
