In Brief: Bellflower Hospital Reopened; CDPH Announces Cancer Registry
Bellflower Hospital Reopened
The former Bellflower Medical Center has been reopened and renamed the Los Angeles Community Hospital at Bellflower.
The 80-bed hospital reopened last week after approval from state regulators. It is being operated by Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings. The hospital is currently operating a 32-bed psychiatric unit for voluntary inpatients.
Bellflower Medical Center was closed in April 2013 by its prior owner. Prospect acquired the property last year. It has refurbished the interior extensively.
The hospital is expected to offer urgent care and medical inpatient and surgical services in the near future.
“Prospect believes that it is very important for Bellflower to have its own hospital again, and the company is pleased to be able to bring high-quality healthcare services back to the community,” the company said in a statement. “The greatest benefit of having the hospital reopen will be better access to healthcare for residents. When the hospital is fully operational, people will no longer have to go outside of the community when they need medical services.”
CDPH Announces Cancer Registry
The California Department of Public Health has announced it would work with the St. Joseph Health System in Orange County to create a registry that would collect and track cancer data.
Under the agreement, St. Joseph Health would send patient cancer data directly to the California Cancer Registry. Officials say it is the first collaboration of its kind in the country. it involves the 10-hospital St. Joseph Health, the CDPH, mTuitive, a Massachusetts-based data management firm, and the College of American Pathologists.
“Every second we save in sharing data gives researchers more time to spend on curing cancer,” said CDPH Director Karen Smith, M.D. “This partnership is another way in which the California Department of Public Health works with the private sector and health care systems to optimize the health and well-being of the people in California.”
Medicare Data Concludes Deaths, Hospitalizations Down
New data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has concluded that the hospitalization and mortality rates for Medicare enrollees has dropped significantly over the past 15 years.
The mortality rate among Medicare beneficiaries dropped from 5.3% in 1999 to 4.45% in 2013. And the number of hospital stays annually fell by more thn 8,300 per 100,000. The amount of money spent per beneficiary dropped by nearly $500 during that period of time.
And while the data varied depending on specific regions of the country, even areas that were among the worst performers in 1999 has improved significiantly by 2013.
The data was published in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
