Irvine Hospital Expands; Beckman Rolls Out Reagents
Electricity troubles have monopolized state lawmakers’ time in recent months. But the energy crisis isn’t the only issue the California Legislature will have to deal with as 2001 forges on.
State Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove, and colleague Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, are taking on the state’s emergency medicine system. Dunn and Speier introduced two bills designed to deal with what they call a threat to patient care.
According to the California Medical Association, the state’s emergency care system lost around $400 million in fiscal 1999 providing uncompensated care. The association, to back up its contention, released a report saying that 80% of hospital emergency rooms lost money that year when 9 million patients were treated in such units at an average cost of $46 a visit.
Among other things, the association’s report noted that hospitals around California lost $317 million in their emergency departments, while physicians provided another $100 million in uncompensated care. The association also noted that Orange County hospitals lost $16 million during the report period.
Emergency medicine is considered one of the more costly forms of healthcare, and policy makers often try to limit its usage except for those conditions that truly qualify. Still, people without insurance often access care from emergency rooms,because laws prohibit such units from denying care.
Dunn and Speier’s measures, if they pass, would allocate an additional $300 million to the emergency medical system and streamline the way emergency funds are distributed. For example, Dunn’s bill would declare trauma and emergency care as an essential public service and create a statewide essential emergency service facility fund of $200 million to support local hospitals.
Irvine Hospital Gets Urgent Care
Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center, one of Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s 10 Orange County facilities, is opening an urgent care center this month adjacent to the hospital’s Sand Canyon Avenue campus. The center will operate six days a week.
Dr. Tom Ryu, the center’s medical director, said in a release that board-certified emergency physicians would staff it. Besides Ryu, other staff physicians include Keith Rosing, Steve Lin, Matthew Mullarky and Fred Mading.
Sand Canyon Urgent Care Center also is planning to have an industrial medicine program. The center plans to see workers’ compensation injuries as well as offering pre-employment physicals to local employers. Rosing, also the center’s director of industrial medicine, said that the center also hopes to offer physicals and programs structured to fit the needs of executives.
Measuring Immune Response
Beckman Coulter Inc., Fullerton, introduced what it calls the first standard, ready-to-use reagents to measure specific cellular immune responses. The products are designed to be used as research tools to track immune responses in the study of HIV. They also can be used to help develop drugs and vaccines that fight AIDS, as well as in understanding immune response in the study of melanoma and other cancers, according to Beckman.
Bonnie Anderson, vice president and director of Beckman Coulter’s immunomics operations, said in a release that the company’s new reagents offer the potential to advance clinical trials for pharmaceutical development, as well as to contribute to basic and clinical research.
Nursing Home Regains Funding
Carehouse Care Center, a Santa Ana nursing home that has battled to restore its MediCal and Medicaid funding, has regained it. Burbank-based Fountain View Inc., which owns the 174-bed facility, said that Carehouse was recertified to provide those services retroactive to Dec. 1.
Even though Carehouse’s funding was restored, Fountain View said it “continues to vigorously contest this decertification at the federal and state levels.” The nursing home’s funding was originally cut off after it failed a state inspection in December 1999.
Bits and Pieces:
University of California, Irvine, Graduate School of Management is holding an information session Feb. 10 for its Health Care Executive MBA program. Session hours are 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, 17900 Jamboree Road. For reservations, call (949) 824-4622 … Bob Nelson, president and founder of Nelson Motivation Inc., will address “Adapting to Change in the Employee Benefits Industry” at the Feb. 8 breakfast meeting of the Orange County Employee Benefits Council. The Meeting runs from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Irvine Marriott, 18000 Von Karman Ave. For information, call (714) 573-8605 … VitalCom Inc., Tustin, said its PatientNet wireless information network is being used by Valley Baptist Medical Center, a 588-bed hospital in Harlingen, Texas .. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, redesigned and expanded its Web site. Features include a disease database, prescription guide and physician information … Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., Tustin, said its manufacturing director would present an update on its cancer treatments this week at the IBC conference in San Diego.
