Doctors Medical Center fights closure

About 250,000 West Contra Costa County residents may soon be in the midst of a health care crisis. Doctors Medical Center San Pablo has lost millions of dollars for years by treating the uninsured and underinsured. The hospital has stayed afloat with the help of two parcel taxes and previous funding from the state and…

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For Richmond hosts community reception

Last night, the nonprofit For Richmond, hosted a community reception. Kyra Worthy, For Richmond’s executive director, explained the organization’s purpose like this, “I think we’re here to help the community help themselves.”

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Doctor’s Medical Center celebrates cancer survivors

Breast cancer ribbon balloon

At an event organized by Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo last Wednesday; former breast cancer patients celebrated their survival of cancer. The survivors received special treatments like free beauty makeovers and make-up gift bags, which donated by Bare Escentuals, a company based in San Francisco. For the women who were there, it was a…

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Financially struggling Richmond hospital seeks partnership

Luis Moreno brought his 17-year-old stepdaughter to Doctors Medical Center last Monday after she missed two days of school due to flu symptoms. She is not a Richmond resident—she lives in Pinole—but Doctor’s Medical Center is the closest emergency room. And she is uninsured. Like her, nearly a quarter of the patients Doctors Medical Center…

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Cut down on salt, sugar and fat

Picture of a apple juice bottle, Mountain Dew bottle and a Sunkist bottle labelled with the amount of sugar each drink contains.

Drinking juice sounds healthy. But even a small bottle of apple juice can contain 10 teaspoons of sugar, a nutritionist told seniors at the Healthy Eating Event at the Richmond Auditorium Wednesday morning. About 50 people attended the free event, organized by the Richmond Commission on Aging and aimed at educating the elderly in Richmond…

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Internship shows students the ropes of the health care profession

On Friday, 16 West County high school students completed a paid summer internship program at Doctors Medical Center and were awarded certificates of proficiency by the Contra Costa County Office of Education. The five-week Summer Youth Employment Program acquainted students with the kind of work done in different hospital departments such as human resources, food and nutrition, the sleep lab and the cancer center.

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Voters pass parcel tax for Doctors Medical Center

Voters in West Contra Costa County passed a ballot measure Tuesday that Doctors Medical Center administrators said will keep the struggling hospital from closing. Measure J, which won with nearly 74 percent of voters casting “yes” ballots, will allow the county to put in place a $47 parcel tax increase per household in West County,…

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West County voters to decide on parcel tax to save Doctors Medical Center

Residents of West Contra Costa County will vote this fall on a special parcel tax to support the ailing Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. The five-member West Contra Costa County Healthcare District board, the elected body that oversees the public hospital’s operations, voted unanimously last week to approve a ballot measure that would raise over $5 million per year to pay for the hospital’s continued operations.

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Doctor’s Medical Center faces grim prognosis

What would happen if West Contra Costa County’s largest hospital was forced to shut its doors or seriously downgrade its emergency room operations? It would be very bad, according to a study released last week by the county health department’s Emergency Medical Services agency. Yet hospital officials say a permanent closure of Doctor’s Medical Center San Pablo, whose largely low-income and elderly patient population makes it difficult to run profitably, is looming unless they are able to secure state or other funding soon.

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