Posts Tagged: Hospitals

News

Dangerous mix: Law enforcement and mentally ill suspects

A suspect in custody, handcuffed by police. (Photo: Boyfare, via Shutterstock)

Police response to mental-health calls often ends – again and again – in chaotic, noisy hospital emergency rooms, where staff is stretched thin, and a heart attack is likely to take precedence over someone in the throes of a mental-health crisis. “Traditionally, people would be dropped off at the ER, and the only option was to transfer them to a psychiatric facility,” says Dr. Scott Zeller, a nationally known emergency psychiatrist and former president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.

News

California’s pandemic pain increases sharply

Photo illustration of the coronavirus in California. (Photo: Maridav, via Shutterstock)

COVID-19 cases in California are spiking dramatically — more than 6,600 new cases on Tuesday alone — and scientists predict California will double its transmission rate every four to five weeks. On Wednesday, the death toll spiked to 98, bringing to 5,725 the total number of deaths so far.

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Carmela Coyle on hospitals, coronavirus

The coronavirus. Illustration from the Centers for Disease Control

Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Association, joins John and Tim on the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about the challenges that hospitals face as they deal with this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, “an order of potential magnitude that we just haven’t seen before.”

News

Mental health care: From the snake pit to the streets

Illustration of a person suffering from mental illness. (Image: GrAl, via Shutterstock)

The modern history of mental-health care in California begins more than half a century ago with passage of the landmark 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, an ambitious — but ultimately disastrous —  overhaul of a draconian “system” of hoary old mental hospitals throughout California. Most of the hospitals were closed, but the “community care” that was to take their place never materialized.

Opinion

Key advantages of a private nursing education

Nursing students at a university health care facility. (Photo: Africa Studio, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Nursing is in my blood. My parents are both nurses. My sister, countless cousins and others in my family have all dedicated themselves to serving others through the noble profession of nursing. When I graduated high school, I briefly tried to outrun my destiny. I left Los Angeles to enroll at UC Merced, only to find that the call to nursing remained strong.

Opinion

Surprise bills: Hospitals don’t like them, either

A photo illustration of hospital billing. (Image: 9dream studio, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: All of us in California should get behind the opportunity to protect patients from out-of-insurance-network health care bills. That’s why it is unfortunate that some in the Legislature want to couple this unifying issue of helping patients with other controversial and polarizing issues that threaten the outcome.

Opinion

Hospitals’ role crucial in expanded health care

An emergency room at a hospital in Palo Alto. (Photo: Jennie Book, via Shutterstock)

Today in California, the fifth largest economy in the world, we’ve made unparalleled progress toward our goal of health care coverage for all, but there are still roughly 2.8 million people without health care coverage. Take a moment to let that number sink in: 2.8 million.

News

Organized labor in California as 2019 begins

San Francisco Marriott hotel employees picketing in October in support of better wages, benefits. (Photo: 1000Photography, via Shutterstock)

California labor confronted major challenges last year but responded with frenetic organizing and a newfound aggressiveness—momentum unions hope to maintain in 2019. As 2018 opened, California had 2.49 million union members, roughly 15.5 percent of the state’s official working population

News

The ballot props: What’s at stake

A voter prepares to make a choice on the ballot. (Photo: Svanblar, via Shutterstock)

California voters are being asked to approve $16.4 billion in bond financing, cut taxes and weigh in on such diverse topics as kidney dialysis prices and farm animal living conditions in the Nov. 6 election. The 11 initiatives on the ballots include requests for bond financing for housing, water and children’s hospitals. Other initiatives would approve huge property tax savings for seniors, repeal the controversial gas tax hike and open the way to expand rent control. In the long tradition of California ballot propositions, fights over the initiatives have prompted record spending.

News

Just who is an independent contractor?

A sweeping new California Supreme Court ruling restricting who is an independent contractor is shaking up an exceptionally diverse range of industries. The ruling, issued in April, affects an estimated 2 million independent contractors working in healthcare, beauty salons, gig economy jobs like Uber and Lyft, journalism, music, real estate, education, financial planning, agriculture, construction, technology, insurance, transportation and more

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