The California Nurses Association and the vast number of health care workers in California are in support of Assembly Bill 2616 introduced by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner earlier this year. If passed into law, AB 2616 would establish a rebuttable presumption in the workers' compensation system for acute care hospital employees, providing direct patient care, who contract a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) skin infection. Existing law provides that an injury sustained by an employee, arising out of the course and scope of their employment, is compensable under the workers' compensation system. However, what constitutes an injury arising out of the course and scope of employment is often the source of litigation.

Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the National Nurses United have been urging state legislators to pass a bill they introduced last year, the Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act. The HPTFA would limit excessive revenues and executive compensation for nonprofit, state-assisted hospitals, and would require hospitals to publicly disclose their financing, including their tax-sheltered offshore accounts. While health care costs are the financial ruin of many families, hospitals are able to boost revenue in part by keeping offshore accounts, which are not subject to the rigors of taxation or regulatory oversight.

A Rideout Memorial Hospital whistle-blower who tipped off the state about nurse-patient staffing violations is suing for wrongful termination and alleging she was battered by her boss. Rachel Mendoza alleged in her suit "she was not a helpless nurse under the control of heartless administrators, managers and supervisors because the state of California took violations of safety and health care seriously and would stand up for her rights to demand safe working conditions and proper care and treatment of patients under her care."

When a parcel tax meant to fund Doctors Medical Center failed earlier this month, it was clear something drastic would be needed to save the hospital from closure. Contra Costa County officials say they don't have the millions it would take. Now two unions representing nurses and other health care workers are arguing that shutting down the hospital amounts to discrimination. Saying African-American and senior citizens would disproportionately suffer, they've filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Doctors at a Northern California hospital, concerned that a 40-year-old woman with sky-high blood pressure and confusion might have a blood clot, order a CT scan of her lungs. To their surprise, the scan reveals not a clot but large cancers in both breasts that have spread throughout her body. Had they done a simple physical exam of the woman's chest, they would have been able to feel the tumors. So would the doctors who saw her during several hospitalizations over the previous two years, when the cancer might have been more easily treated. A middle-aged man admitted to a Seattle emergency room for the third time in six weeks displays the classic signs of liver cirrhosis for which he has been repeatedly treated, including swollen legs and a distended abdomen.