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News — California

Nurses union begins ads attacking Whitman

The California Nurses Association said the incident shows how disconnected the GOP gubernatorial nominee is from working people. At a news conference outside its Oakland headquarters that was attended by 150 nurses in red scrubs, the union unveiled a new ad campaign - "Nurses Won't Be Pushed Around" - and released posters showing a heavily jeweled hand adorned with rings that was meant to represent the billionaire candidate. —San Francisco Chronicle, 06/25/10 More »

California News

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Remember back in December 2004 when California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told nurses protesting staffing cuts that they were “special interests,” who “don’t like me in Sacramento because I kick their butt?” The California Nurses Association (CNA) then sued the Governor, and helped defeat all of his ballot measures in the November 2005 special election. —Beyond Chron, 06/24/10 More »

California News

Whitman dismisses uproar about alleged shoving incident with EBay employee

In a radio interview, the Republican said the altercation was a verbal dispute and characterizes the media interest in the story as the 'fascination of the chattering class. After a week of silence, Meg Whitman has spoken out about a report that she shoved a subordinate when she was chief executive of EBay, characterizing the altercation as a verbal dispute and dismissing the uproar about it as "a fascination of the chattering class." —Los Angeles TImes, 06/23/10 More »

California News

California Health Department Failing to Address Unsafe Care Problems Raised by Nurses

It’s been six months after Registered Nurses and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United filed a complaint with the California Department of Public Health regarding sweeping and pervasive patient care problems at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. —California Progress Report, 06/17/10 More »

California News

UCD Medical Center nurses protest staffing

Dozens of nurses walked picket lines outside the UC Davis Medical Center on Thursday, joining scores of other registered nurses across the state to protest what they decry as chronic violations of the state law requiring minimum staffing levels. University officials, however, insist they are in full compliance with the minimum nurse-to-patient ratios mandated by the 1999 state law at the core of the dispute. —Sacramento Bee, 06/11/10 More »

California News

Political street theater comes to town

Santa Barbara received a special visit from Queen Meg on Friday, a comedic performance of a royal pain who claims to be running to be the next governor of California. The farcical impersonation of candidate Meg Whitman was sponsored by the California Nurses Association, who created the guerilla theater at Shoreline Park to illustrate what they claim are Ms. Whitman's unscrupulous defense of business and her attacks on the environment. —Santa Barbara News-Press, 06/05/10 More »

California News

Jerry Brown aims first volley at Meg Whitman

Republicans have yet to formally decide their gubernatorial nominee, but California Democrats are already launching their campaign against the candidate they expect to win: frontrunner Meg Whitman. —Los Angeles TImes, 06/02/10 More »

California News

California nurse-staffing law saves lives, study says

A new study on nurse staffing levels was hailed by the California Nurses Association on Tuesday as proof that the state's nursing-ratio law is saving lives. If similar laws were enacted in such states as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the number of patient deaths in those states could be reduced by as much as 14 percent, according to the study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the journal Health Services Research. —Sacramento Bee, 04/21/10 More »

California News

Study: Nurse-to-patient ratio saves lives

California’s nurse-to-patient staffing law reduces deaths from common surgeries, allows nurses to spend more time with patients and helps hospitals retain nurses, a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania concludes. California’s landmark law requires minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for specific units in all general acute-care hospitals. It was signed in 1999, but ratios were phased in from 2004 through 2008 —Sacramento Business Journal, 04/20/10 More »

California News

Pioneering law on nurses found to save lives

California's law limiting the number of patients that can be assigned to a nurse has resulted in fewer deaths and a belief among the state's nurses that they were able to provide better care, according to the first comprehensive evaluation of the landmark legislation. The study by the University of Pennsylvania, published today in the policy journal Health Services Research, compared deaths from common surgeries in California in 2006, two years after the law was enacted, to surgical deaths in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. —San Francisco Chronicle, 04/20/10 More »

California News

Taking a hike for health

"Take me to General" is a reference to San Joaquin General Hospital that a local police officer or firefighter might make if they were critically injured. The facility's reputation is that strong, according to nurses who work there. But that slogan could become a distant memory in a few months if county officials and hospital administrators move forward with a recommendation to eliminate its emergency neurotrauma center for head and spinal injuries. —Stockton Record, 04/13/10 More »

California News

Whitman’s fortune entwined with Goldman Sachs

Candidate Meg Whitman touts her experience at eBay, the online auction house that made her rich, but her career and personal fortune are entwined with another company: the Goldman Sachs investment bank, a major player in public finance in the state she wants to lead. Whitman’s relationship with the giant Wall Street firm — as investor, corporate director and recipient of both insider stock deals and campaign donations — could pose conflicts of interest if the Republican front-runner is elected governor of California, critics say. —CaliforniaWatch.org, 04/10/10 More »

California News

UCI hospital out of compliance again

Federal regulators visiting UC Irvine Medical Center found two cases of immediate jeopardy - the most serious finding of potential danger to patients - during an inspection last week, according to a memo sent to hospital employees. —Orange County Register, 03/11/10 More »

California News

St. Johns Hospital on Trial

The federal agency that oversees labor law has ordered St. Johns Health Center, Santa Monica, to stand trial on charges that it has violated the rights of its registered nurses. The National Labor Relations Board is prosecuting the hospital for unlawful harassment of nurse leaders, engaging in illicit spying on RNs, and interrogating nurses about union activity, among other violations. —Santa Monica DIspatch, 03/08/10 More »

California News

Modesto nurse volunteers in shattered nation of Haiti

As a veteran emergency and intensive care nurse, Marti Smith of Oakdale has cared for plenty of car crash victims and other people with severely broken bones. During her 10 days of serving on a hospital ship caring for victims of the Haiti earthquake, she wasn't struck by the severity of the injuries, but by the sheer number of Haitian people with severe trauma. —Modesto Bee, 03/06/10 More »

Nationwide, California News

Single payer, here we come

For more than 7 million working Californians who currently don't have health insurance, Congress and President Barack Obama's attempt to reform health care has been an exercise in frustration. The public option was almost immediately taken off the table, despite the fact that most independent experts agree reform won't work without it, and after a year of negotiations, no bill is in sight. —Sacramento News and Review, 03/04/10 More »

California News

Calif. insurer’s rate increases draw attention of federal government

President Obama's secretary of health and human services fired off a sharply worded letter to a California insurer Monday, demanding to know why it is raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent. The unusual salvo offers a reminder that, even as health-care legislation lies in limbo in Washington, the battle over surging health care costs continues in other venues. —Washington Post, 02/08/10 More »

Nationwide, California News

When healthcare coverage is insurance in name only

The L'Esperances are your typical American family. They work hard. They try to get ahead. They don't ask anyone for help. And they pray they don't get sick. Mom and Dad -- a.k.a. Laguna Beach residents Jan and Paul L'Esperance -- sell kitchenware on behalf of various manufacturers. They've just been informed by Anthem Blue Cross that premiums for their health insurance will rise 18% to $985 a month. —Los Angeles TImes, 02/08/10 More »

Nationwide, California News

Former eBay CEO rewrites campaign spending book

Chartered jets that offer "white glove service," fancy fundraisers in Beverly Hills and beyond, and enough high-priced political consultants to fill an auditorium. Those are a few of billionaire Meg Whitman's favorite things as she carries out her remarkably lavish campaign for California governor. —Associated Press, 02/05/10 More »

California News

Federal Government Indicts Sutter/CPMC to Block Illegal Health Plan Imposed On San Francisco RNs

Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center (Sutter/CPMC) is facing an upcoming trial over the unilateral imposition on January 1, 2010 of an unlawful health plan on registered nurses and other workers. —Press Release, 02/02/10 More »

California, Sutter News

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