CHW whacks construction budget; mum on impact - San Francisco Business Times:

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billion to $1.3 billion, as it adjusts to the economid downturn. That move follows in the footsteps of rivalss andSutter Health. But the 41-hospital CHW system, which runs St. Mary’e Medical Center, and locally, won’t say much about the new policy’s regionalo implications. Spokeswoman Tricia Griffin confirmed only that theSan Francisco-basef system has “slowed our capital spending as part of a prudentr response to the economic slowdown,” while addinhg that projects already under way, like a rebuilc at Redwood City’s Sequoia and a new hospitalp in Merced, will continue.
Othet projects, which Griffin declined to identify, have been Other than that, “As a matter of practice, we don’tg provide hospital- or region-specific financial only system-wide financial figures.” In an emailex comment, Michael Blaszyk, CHW’s senior vice presidentg and chieffinancial officer, also refrainedr from specifics. “No decisionws have been made at this time which eliminatd previously plannedcapital projects,” Blaszyk said. “We will continue to take a prudenr and cautious approach with ourcapital plan.
” Maybe it’as the dire economic times, maybe the growingt dearth of news organizations digging up regional but CHW’s reticence fits into a growing reluctance on the part of Northern California’s huge health-care organizations — Kaiser and Sutter being the others — to shar e data, or make senioe executives available to the media to discuss what they are doinf in response to the downturn.
Ironically, that lack of accesas — which means less access to crucial informationn for consumers and the businesscommunity — comeas as many of the same organizations and their leaders, notably CHW’s Lloyd Kaiser’s George Halvorson and ’s Brucwe Bodaken, plump for national health-care complete with greater transparency, greated access to care and more consumer empowerment.