Dan Virkstis

In earlier posts to this blog (The Power of Teamwork and A Miracle on 31st Street), I touched on strategies Alameda Health System is implementing to change the game around patient care and community engagement, and the transformational leaders at our hospitals and clinics who are making it happen. Today, with our national dialogue still gripped by tragedies at Sandy Hook Elementary School and elsewhere, I want to address ways our hospitals and communities can work together to heal families and bring mindfulness to matters of injury and young people.

Over the last two years, job loss in America has outpaced job creation. In just 23 months, 7 million jobs have been cut, leaving millions of Americans struggling to afford necessities. We on the finance committee have fought to protect these workers and families. Last month, the president signed our bill to extend unemployment insurance for jobless Americans. In an effort to help businesses increase cash flow to make payroll and create jobs, we also expanded the net operating loss carryback pro

SAN LEANDRO, CA (October 15, 2013) — John George Psychiatric Hospital (JGPH) announced the publication of a new study showing the use of regional psychiatric emergency services (PES) in appropriate health systems could significantly reduce health care costs while improving access and quality of care. In response to a nationwide dilemma where psychiatric patients often “board” without treatment in emergency rooms (ER) for long hours or even days, Scott Zeller, MD, Chief of Psychiatric Emergency Services for Alameda Health System (AHS) conducted the study entitled, “Effects of a Dedicated Regional Psychiatric Emergency Service on Boarding of Psychiatric Patients in the Emergency Department.”

Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today announced legislation that would make existing tax breaks permanent for working families and individuals including the child tax credit, marriage penalty relief, and lower middle-income tax rates among other provisions. The measures were originally passed as part of tax legislation in 2001 and 2003, but are set to expire in 2010. Baucus unveiled his proposal after a Finance Committee hearing today that examined the affect of the current economy and the U.S. tax code on America’s middle class.

Mental illness is a medical condition that disables a person’s capacity for coping in daily life. Just as diabetes is a disease affecting the pancreas, mental illness affects the brain, with one in 20 California adults suffering from severe mental health conditions. Because Alameda Health System (AHS) consists of both medical centers and a behavioral health facility, John George Psychiatric Hospital (JGPH), it is able to integrate the delivery of mental and medical services.

With responsibility for over half of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Finance Committee has charted a rapid course of action to stabilize and renew the economy. This document seeks to explain both how and why the Finance Committee measures will be deployed in the economy in the near term.