Kaiser Permanente workers across the state began picketing began at 7 a.m. Tuesday in a one-day strike over a new contract for mental health and optical employees. Thousands of workers took to picket lines in Northern and Southern California over a contract dispute involving 4,000 employees who are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, a NUHW representative said. Those workers include NUHW-represented mental health clinicians, clinical psychologists, licensed ......

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and the Sonoma County coroner's office are investigating how a man died 12 hours after he was discharged from the hospital's emergency room last week. Michael Torres, 49, went to the hospital on Sept. 19 and left the emergency room around 8:45 p.m. He was found dead at 8:02 a.m. on Sept. 20, the coroner's office said. His body was found on the southwest corner of the hospital's property, hospital spokeswoman ......

Hospital patients have the right to choose who visits them — including same-sex domestic partners — according to federal rules issued last November. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services is stepping up efforts to make sure those rules are being enforced. "Couples take a vow to be with each other in sickness and in health and it is unacceptable that, in the past, some same-sex partners were denied the ......

Two Bay Area hospitals topped U.S. News' annual "Best Hospitals" list. The list is in its 22nd year and ranks the 720 best hospitals out of 5,000 nationwide In addition to the list of 720 best hospitals, there's the super-exclusive list called the "Honor Roll." That list is “reserved for medical centers that demonstrate unusually high expertise across multiple specialties,” according to U.S. News. Only 17 hospitals nationwide made the ......

An ailing public hospital that serves patients in West Contra Costa County may receive a $10 million bailout from county supervisors next Tuesday. Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo may receive $2 million by April 15, followed by another installment of $8 million later on. The hospital, which primarily serves low-income patients, is part of the West Contra Costa Healthcare District.  In 2006, the county advanced $10 million to the ......