for those who want to go to Kaiser in Modesto when we are done

We will graduate in enough time to work there when finally opens.

Kaiser Permanente has set October 2008 as the date it will open the 220-bed hospital wing of its new Modesto Medical Center.
A Kaiser official cited the organization's desire to open the hospital with its HealthConnect electronic medical records system in place and a backlog of work for outside hospital-supply vendors as reasons for the delay.
Kaiser officials announced last fall during the opening of the office wing housing 53 physicians that construction of the hospital wing would wrap up this July but the facility would not open until sometime in 2008.
However, it was not until recently that they pinpointed the opening date to the last quarter of the year, essentially mothballing the brand new building for up to 15 months.
Construction is on schedule and is not an issue.
The entire project on 49 acres at 4601 Dale Road in northwest Modesto has been estimated to cost $492 million and is intended to serve Kaiser's 265,000 members in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. And that number is projected to grow by 7,500 to 10,000 members this year, according to Kaiser.
The Oakland-based health-care giant operates a small, 99-bed hospital in Manteca and contracts with private hospitals Dameron in Stockton and Emanuel in Turlock to serve its area members. They also have access to larger Kaiser hospitals in Sacramento and the Bay Area.
At the time the project was announced in December 2002, Kaiser's Toni Flores said "it is imperative for us to get this medical center up and running quickly."
Kaiser officials at the time cited rapid population growth and the shortage of hospital beds and medical-specialty physicians as the reasons for selecting the site and seeking to move forward rapidly.
Corwin Harper, a Kaiser senior vice president and Central Valley Area manager, said this week that the Modesto hospital simply has to wait its turn as Kaiser opens other hospitals and medical office buildings around the state.
In Northern California alone, Kaiser expects to invest $1.6 billion into the next decade on construction projects. Together with other hospitals in the midst of expansion and construction, hospital-supply vendors are being taxed beyond their capacity.
"We're opening hospitals in Southern California and Antioch (Nov. 7), and it's putting a huge demand on our vendors," Harper said, particularly in the area of radiology where MRIs and CT scanners must be installed by trained technicians.
Also, Kaiser wants to open the new hospital with its highly touted HealthConnect system in place. HealthConnect will provide a common software for all Kaiser facilities and over the Internet covering electronic registration and scheduling, billing, clinical information systems, laboratory and X-ray information, pharmacy records and information, and online patient access.
Harper said Kaiser's schedule calls for HealthConnect to be implemented in South Sacramento, Santa Rosa and Antioch hospitals this year, followed by the hospitals in Manteca and Modesto in 2008.
Meanwhile, Harper is moving forward with hiring key personnel for the new hospital. When fully operational, the Modesto Medical Center is expected to employ more than 1,800. Kaiser currently employs close to 2,500 people at nine facilities in the two-county area, including about 315 physicians in the Permanente Medical Group.
"We have a very well-organized education department for training purposes. We do not want to hire everyone in September. We're looking at multiple different ways to staff this hospital - from existing Kaiser staff in the Bay Area to people already living here who will make the decision they want to come work for Kaiser," Harper said.
California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which regulates hospital construction, said Friday there were no problems with the delay in opening from a construction standpoint, according to spokesman David Byrnes.