North Bay Business Journal

In order for wellness to be more than just a buzzword, employers need to take careful steps to adequately define what wellness means while promoting the concept as a partnership with employees that will engender an overall healthy environment. Employers should also expect to make a significant investment of both time and resources if they are to be successful. That was the prevailing message from a panel assembled for the North Bay Business Journal’s Health Care Conference, which discussed corporate wellness as a strategy in increasing employee productivity, reducing absenteeism and curbing ever-incresing health care costs, among other benefits.

Mike Purvis is the chief administrative officer for Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, which will soon be relocated from the aging Chanate facility, the former county-run Community Hospital, to a brand new, $284 million medical campus next to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

Mr. Purvis will be a panelist at the Business Journal’s health care conference on Nov. 30, where he will discuss the new hospital and how it will impact Sonoma County.

SANTA ROSA — Sutter Health and Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare have introduced a new Medicare Advantage plan from some 78,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Sonoma County, the two organizations announced this morning.

SANTA ROSA — Sutter Health and the county of Sonoma have rejected a proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed by the North Sonoma County Healthcare District opposing Sutter’s $284 million hospital project north of Santa Rosa.

NORTH BAY — Union employees at Kaiser Permanente facilities throughout the state were joined by the California Nurses Association in staging a strike to protest proposed cuts in benefits.

SANTA ROSA — Sutter Health today announced that Mike Cohill, currently chief executive officer of Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation, will be the new president of Sutter’s West Bay region, which stretches from San Francisco into Lake County.

The Northern California Center for Well-Being, along with the Northern California Medical Associates, today celebrated the 20th anniversary of the HeartWorks Fitness Center, a cardiovascular rehabilitation program. The Center for Well-Being, which focuses on wellness and preventative care, and NCMA, a practice of cardiologists, have collaborated on the program made possible by ongoing support from [...]

In its analysis of the recently released unemployment statistics for May, Los Angeles-based Beacon Economics listed the Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA among three regions in California that gained jobs — 1,700 to be exact between April and May.

SANTA ROSA – Redwood Regional Medical Group has added Dr. Amy Shaw, a long time family physician in Sonoma County, to head the practice’s new Primary Care Oncology and Survivorship Program.

SANTA ROSA – Sutter Health can continue construction unabated on its $284 million hospital after a Sonoma County judge last week dismissed most of the challenges filed by opponents that centered on project’s environmental impact report.

SANTA ROSA – Sutter Health and the North Sonoma County Healthcare District recently squared off in front of a Sonoma County judge, each presenting its case as to why or why not Sutter’s forthcoming $284 million hospital north of Santa Rosa is in line with the California Environmental Quality Act and the county Health Care Access Agreement.

SANTA ROSA — The Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency, which pairs recently-minted doctors with Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco, announced its incoming class for 2014.

SANTA ROSA — A Sonoma County judge today heard arguments in a lawsuit filed to stop construction of Sutter Health’s $284 million hospital next to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts north of Santa Rosa. A ruling is expected within the next few months.

NORTH BAY — Sutter Health is looking to trim costs by $700 million across its expansive hospital system by 2014, a move that so far has unrealized impact across the North Bay but will require fiscal belt-buckling nonetheless.

NORTH BAY — The top California official for the National Federation of Independent Business will discuss the impact of health care reform on small business in the keynote address for the Business Journal’s annual health care conference Nov. 18.
Following John Kabateck, executive director of NFIB/California, a panel of top North Bay hospital executives will discuss the impacts of reform along with hundreds of millions of dollars in hospital and other projects.
To register, contact Linda Perkins at 707-521-5264 or events@busjrnl.com by Friday, Nov. 12, or go to www.NorthBayBusinessJournal.com.

HEALDSBURG — The North Sonoma County Healthcare District tonight at its board meeting formally announced its lawsuit to stop development of Sutter Health’s proposed new hospital next to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

Sonoma County taxpayers should be happy to know they can now witness one taxpayer-funded entity suing another taxpayer-funded entity.

SANTA ROSA – Nine years after its first proposal, Sutter Health is near the final go-ahead for a new hospital that will replace services at the aged Chanate facility.

The Petaluma Health Center last week broke ground on an expansion that will double its patient volume and significantly increase services offered at the federally qualified health center.

MARIN COUNTY — The Marin Healthcare District and many of its allies have accused Sutter Health of singling out Marin General Hospital for the transfer of tens millions of dollars out of the medical facility. But an examination of state data shows such transfers amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars are common for the Sacramento-based health giant and its affiliated hospitals in San Francisco and the North Bay.