One million sq. ft. Renovation of Kaiser-Permanente's 50-year-old Los Angeles Med. Center Continues

Demolition at Kaiser on Sunset, seen through a 

display of mobile sculpture inside an already 

completed portion of the hospital.  

(Photo by Republic Of L.A.)

(Facility Billed as Innovative Enough to Serve Patients for Next Half Century)

According to builder Rudolph and Sletten, which is headquartered in Redwood City, once it's finished the hospital will be the first to have a built-in, electronic medical records system.  

In addition, the new Kaiser will feature nurses' stations and procedure rooms with so-called "picture archiving system," which will "effortlessly" route images to flat-panel screens, thus eliminating the need for more expensive, bulky and less envinronmentally friendly X-ray screens.  Another benefit of the "X-ray screen-free system is that mages will be instantly available to surgeons in operating rooms.  


When necessary, patients will be eased into bed by special portable chairs that will hang from the ceiling and move the length of the room on tracks, the company said in a statement to reporters.   Furthermore, the specialty construction company said, beds will be adjustable to a nearly vertical position for easy access from a standing or sitting position. 

Among other benefits of such beds, will be the fact that patients needing dialysis will not have to be moved from testing areas elswhere for treatment.  All services can be provided from one place.  

The new emergency department will be equipped with the many of the patient comfort amenities found in other parts of the hospital. Because the potential for many of the same dangers that vex us now will probably continue to exist, disaster readiness measures will include decontamination showers and a dedicated air conditioning and ventilation system. The new medical center will have 456 patient rooms, 11 labor and delivery rooms, and six cardiac surgery suites.

The hospital will feature numerous green spaces including a garden with a play area for pediatric patients, a garden courtyard on the 4th floor serving the labor and delivery unit, an outside dining patio facing the park, and a tree-lined green-belt at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Edgemont Street. Palm trees will line the north side of the boulevard for a three-block stretch.

Tax Day? Tea Time!

Anti-Obama, Anti-Medicare, Anti-Tax, Pro-Ryan, Tea Partying Angelenos' Day in the Sun?

What they lacked in numbers during tax season 2011, they made up for in zealousness

By Thom Senzee

WOODLAND HILLS (RoLA)--Patti Hutchens (far left, w/flag) came out in the late afternoon sun Saturday to a park in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of the City of L.A. and did something she's done every April 15 since 2009--wave the red-white-&-blue at passing cars to express her passion for what she believes America needs most: lower taxes.

"I like the Paul Ryan plan," Hutchens, 56 of Canoga Park, said.

Asked whether the part of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Minn.) plan to end Medicare as we know it today in favor of a system that would give seniors a voucher and marching orders to fend for themselves in the private health-insurance market bothered her or not, the self-proclaimed former liberal aanswered in with a definite "no."

"I don't think [ending Medicare] is a problem," she said. "They can just go to Kaiser."

Hutchens and many of her fellow Tea partiers seem to believe seniors will find few if any barriers to obtaining health care from a largely for-profit private system, despite the fact that politicians and business leaders from both parties have long decried as dysfunctional and inaccessable to at least 40 million people in this country.

But on one defining aspect of the Ryan plan, Hutchens seemed confused. Republic Of L.A. asked her if she really believed an 80- or 90-year-old with pre-existing conditions (is there such a thing as a 90-year-old without pre-existing conditions?) would be able to find coverage with an $8,000 government voucher. That amount that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would be the average value of a voucher for a person aged 65.

"I think it's $12,000," she said. "I think Kaiser would insure someone like that for $12,000."

In fact, according to the non-partisan CBO, the cost for coverage of the kind now enjoyed by all seniors who receive medicare would cost, at minimum, $16,000 on the open market. The Paul Ryan voucher system would allow the average 65-year-old $8,000. The individual would have to come up with the other $8,000 on her own--assuming she could find an company that would accept her (keeping in mind that Republican plans also include repealing Pres. Obama's Affordable Care Act, and returning the nation to a system that allows for denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions).

Yet Tea Party "patriots" such as Hutchens, are confident that not only will insurance companies welcome 65-year-olds with pre-exisint conditions, they'll also roll out the red carpet for 85- and 95-year-olds too.

How's This for Government Intrusion Into Healthcare: Undercover Officers Posing as Patients to Expose Fraud by Doctors & Nurses

Conservative and Republican politicians have so many labels to choose from. They can be Blue Dogs, RhINOs (Republican in Name Only)...& Now,
the Hippo:

Republican Senator Exposes Himself as Complete Hypocrite.

Today's New York Times Health section's lead story is about how Sen. Tom Coburn (R. Okla.), who is himself an M.D., proposes to establish a network of undercover government agents to lay in hospital beds across the country to expose waste and fraud. This guy is one of the vocal Repubs. who have been fear mongering about Obama's government takeover of health. All the president wants to do is consolidate the buying power of uninsured Americans. Sen. Coburn wants to put agents in hospital rooms to spy on providers. Click on the photo or here for the full NYT story.


Health Care Reform Calculator
Also, if you want to know EXACTLY how the three health care reform proposals might effect you or you and your family, the California-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has a dynamic calculator here.

Physical Therapists March on Anthem Blue Cross Headquarters

Insurer Threatens to Slash Payments to Therapists by 30 Percent,
While Raising Rates by 40 Percent

But you've got to feel sorry for these poor health insurance companies. The parent company of this one only made $4 billion dollars last year. Times are tough.

"They'd never think of doing this to doctors; guess they think we're easy targets." --Demonstrator
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