We've tracked the progress of the new Mills-Peninsula hospital for sometime here.  The Mercury Times is reporting on today's opening with a piece that highlights the seismic and high-tech features

At a cost of $618 million and 11 years in the making, the 450,000-square-foot structure is opening with a flourish after several false starts. Opening time is 7 a.m. Sunday, and the original, earthquake-threatened Peninsula Medical Center will then close down.

And goes on to note

Patients can order meals from room service using a pop-up menu on the 40-inch televisions in their rooms or by dialing "F-O-O-D" on the landlines. Every one of the 241 rooms is private, and many have a sleeper couch so family members can bed down in the room.

I had the chance to talk to a Mills ER doc this week who was less enthusiastic about the move.  The doc was concerned that the ER is much, much larger, but the staffing is the same and, in fact, due to the building's layout one technician is going to be pulled away from the floor to watch the waiting room.  We'll keep our ears open to see how it goes.

I found the Fall edition of the Peninula Health magazine that just came in the mail very informative about the new Mills-Peninsula Emergency Department in the new hospital.  Here are a few excerpts from the cover article profiling Drs. Bresler and Argand and describing how the new ER will be funded and furnished:

• The ER physicians group has pledged a total of $200,000 toward the new facility, one of the largest group gifts among Mills-Peninsula physicians.  These efforts have been instrumental in helping us reach over half of our $75 million goal.

• The ER…will incorporate state-of-the-art cardiac monitors at every bed.  (It will also) have 40 percent more capacity to treat patients in all private rooms with negative air pressure, which will protect against the spread of infection.

• Sound absorbent materials and absence of loud speakers will make the new ER more tranquil.

• (The ER has been) enlarged by 42 percent to accomodate 50,000 visits per year.

Here are some interesting figures from yesterday's S.F. Examiner editorial titled "High-speed rail projects are about pork, not transit":

As it is, rail passengers in the U.S. already receive massive public subsidies. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the net government subsidy for airline passengers is one-tenth of a cent per passenger mile and a half-penny for motorists. That compares to 22 cents for Amtrak riders and 61 cents for public transit passengers. The Obama administration’s plans to pump billions more into high-speed rail will increase this already grossly distorted distribution of federal transportation funds.

And what a coincidence that three of the top contenders for high-speed rail funding just so happen to be located in the home districts of the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. High-speed rail, it seems, is more about pork than transportation.

For the math-challenged among us, 22 cent Amtrak subsidey divided by .1 cent is a rail subsidy of 220 times that of air travel.  As my imaginary grandpa might say. "Dats a lotta CO₂, Anson".

The other question I have been mulling over is what kind of security our shiny high-speed rail system might have.  I was in Spain the week after the terrorist train bombings in Madrid.  I've been on the Shinkansen train in Japan.  Our SF-LA line might not be a high profile target like the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, but it would certainly be more headline news than disrupting our pokey little Caltrain.  Will these stations have x-ray machines?  Will the TSA be out in force every day?  Are the stations being designed with this in mind?  Will the subsidy have to climb to 300 times that of air travel to make it safe?  Do Quentin Kopp or Speaker Pelosi care?

From the Insider column of the San Mateo County Times:

Lawsuit dismissed

ON THURSDAY, a San Mateo County Superior Court judge dismissed the last remaining portion of a lawsuit filed by a group called Peninsula Guardians, who opposed the construction of the new Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame. The center sits on land owned by the Peninsula Health Care District, the primary defendant in the suit.
Part of the lawsuit dismissed Thursday had alleged that the district improperly advocated for the new lease in connection with August's Measure V special election, in which 92 percent of district voters approved the $488 million construction and the lease.

The main part of the lawsuit was thrown out earlier this year. That challenged the district's long-term lease of land to Mills-Peninsula Health Services, which operates the medical center, so that it could construct the new hospital.

The district is rebuilding the Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame due to a state-mandated 2013 deadline for acute-care facilities to meet new seismic standards or close their doors. The new hospital is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

– Written by admin

San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill is moving forward with plans to dissolve the two San Mateo County based health care districts, including the Sequoia Health Care District headquartered in Redwood City and the Peninsula Health Care District headquartered in Burlingame.

Both districts no longer operate their own facilities as they merged with private entities, Sutter in the north, and Catholic Healthcare West to the south. Despite the fact that neither special district actually operates healthcare facilities, they continue to collect property tax assessments from district residents which are, in part, doled out as grants to a variety of local charities and health care efforts. But if the districts are dissolved, the tax does not go with it. In fact, the tax revenue paid by property owners will still be collected but can be redistributed by the county to other agencies within the former districts boundaries, or to the county itself.

And it is this revenue that Supervisor Hill is seeking to help bail out the county's financially flagging county hospital and indigent health care system.

See full story at http://peninsulapolitics.blogspot.com

– Written by politicalblunder

Daily Journal – Hospital rebuild wins huge

Years of planning, negotiations and legal battles over a new Peninsula Medical Center came to an end last night with voters overwhelmingly approving a $488 million state-of-the-art hospital in Burlingame with a stunning 92.8 percent margin. The measure received 27,074 votes in favor and 2,088 not in the all-mail ballot, according to the San Mateo County Elections Office. They win like that when they rigged elections in South America. … You don't have to limit it to South America, it happens in Russia too,? said Board President Donald Newman. The approval of Measure V allows the Peninsula Healthcare District to lease land to Mills-Peninsula Health Services for 50 years. Construction can now begin on the new hospital. Newman was hopeful for a victory, but wasn't anticipating these results. For Newman, the approval is the culmination of years of negotiating and planning that can finally begin. Now the board will focus on overseeing the construction process. Despite the large victory, the hospital efforts were surrounded by a healthy amount of past controversy.

The district spent years on the project including a tense time in which certain members of the board were not allowed to vote on any new development because of conflict of interest. Those interests were eventually resolved when the board members left and new leadership took place. Recently, the Peninsula Hospital Guardians sought to freeze the election until the lease agreement included adequate safeguards to protect San Mateo County taxpayers and patients. The group wanted to ensure that Mills-Peninsula must stick to the agreement. The group sued to stop the election last month. The lawsuit was dismissed, however, because the judge said the concerns could be addressed after the election. The group is currently waiting for the district to respond to some of these issues and has asked to meet with representatives in the future, member Dan Andersen said. I find it amazing that this state-of-the-art facilities will be available. It will be a significant unbelievable impact on health care for many years and only 30 percent of voters turned in their ballots,? he said.
The group wants the new facility, Andersen said, but also wants people to understand the significance of the agreement.

The new hospital is being paid for by Mills-Peninsula and its affiliate, Sutter Health, but required ultimate approval by voters because it is on district-owned property. It will have about 243 beds, a new medical office building and a multi-level parking garage. Planned to be constructed just east of the 1954 building, the new medical center must be built by 2013 to comply with earthquake safety standards. The hospital could not be built without the approval of Measure V. Mills Peninsula and the district reached a deal in August 2005 after years of negotiations. The agreement gives guidelines for Mills-Peninsula to tear down the existing Peninsula Medical Center at Trousdale Drive and El Camino Real and construct a seismically safe, six-story facility. The rebuild is mandated by a state law passed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The agreement transfers 21 acres to Mills-Peninsula with a 50-year lease. Mills-Peninsula will pay the district $1.5 million annually for rent. There is an option to extend the lease an additional 25 years. The district can also opt to regain control of the hospital.

The Peninsula Healthcare District serves residents in San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo and parts of Foster City and South San Francisco.

– Written by Fiona

Activists should stop delaying hospital – Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, Aug. 29, is the final day for the 101,000 residents of the Peninsula Health Care District to postmark their mail-in ballots on whether to approve the long-negotiated contract for Sutter Health to rebuild Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame. Approval now will comply with the state's 2013 hospital seismic upgrade deadline. We hope the majority of voters in the district which essentially runs from San Mateo to San Bruno will say yes to the deal, by which the Sutter nonprofit's Mills-Peninsula Health Services subsidiary pays $488 million to build a new hospital on public land administered by the Health Care District.

A small watchdog group called the Peninsula Guardians does not believe district residents are well enough informed to be entrusted to vote on the deal, even though public meetings about the new hospital have been in progress for six years. The Guardians are suing to throw out the district referendum that hasn't even been tallied yet, which would seem to indicate they don't expect the full vote to go their way. Their attempt to stop the election was denied by Superior Court on July 28. Now the latest word is that the Guardians might drop the lawsuit if the Health Care District meets its demands. Face-to-face meetings between attorneys for the Guardians and the district are supposed to take place early in September, although district spokespersons state it is extremely unlikely that any substantive changes would be made to the contract. The Guardians' main remaining complaints are that the negotiated 50-year lease extends far beyond California's 30-year limit on public hospital property agreements and that vague contractual language would allow the hospital management to make sweeping changes without another district-wide vote. Admittedly these are reasonable concerns, but the Guardians were present at virtually all of the key meetings during the six-year negotiation process, and they had ample opportunity to speak out on their views. By the time this contract was submitted to voters, the terms that Peninsula Health Care District were able to wring out of Mills-Peninsula management during the often-contentious negotiations were considerably improved.

Mills-Peninsula will now pay $1.5 million yearly rent for the district property, rather than pay to build only the hospital. The district gained additional options for placing potentially profitable operations on the valuable acreage not being used for the hospital. And with help from an effective neighborhood campaign, the medical center's massive new parking structure was relocated to frontage on busy El Camino Real instead of looming right above single-family residences.

Plus opinion piece in the Examiner.

– Written by Fiona