Earns an “A” for limiting patient injuries, reducing medical errors, and preventing infections, according to The Leapfrog Group
By Antonia Ehlers, PR and Media Relations, Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Antioch, CA –Kaiser Permanente Antioch is being recognized as among the safest in the nation for patient care, according to The Leapfrog Group’s biannual Hospital Safety Grades report.
Leapfrog reviews hospital clinical data and assigns hospitals grades based on approximately two dozen safety measures that analyze patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections. Kaiser Permanente Antioch is recognized with an “A” grade for patient safety.
“We putpatient safety at the forefront of everything we do,” said Kaiser Permanente Diablo Senior Vice President and Area Manager Pam Galley. “This recognition highlights the safe, high-quality care our physicians, nurses and staff provide every day to our members and patients.”
This fall, 14 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California received A grades from Leapfrog, including: Antioch, Fresno, Manteca, Modesto, Oakland, Roseville, San Francisco, San Jose, San Leandro, San Rafael, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, South Sacramento, and South San Francisco.
“Being among the top hospitals in the nation for patient safety is part of Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to provide safe care that improves the overall health and well-being of our members and patients,” said Kaiser Permanente Antioch Physician in Chief Sharon Mowat, MD. “Our dedicated clinical teams are focused on keeping our patients and members safe in a warm and welcoming environment.”
Photo: Kaiser Permanente
The Leapfrog Group assigns letter grades to nearly 3,000 hospitals throughout the United States. The grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring.
More than 60% of Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals received an A grade. In California overall, only about 30% of the state’s hospitals earned this top grade.
The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits, released its Hospital Safety Gradesafter examining publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections at U.S. hospitals. The report includes data collected by national health care organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Scores are calculated based on more than two dozen publicly available measures, and hospitals are then assigned A, B, C, D or F grades for their safety records. The grades are released as a free resource to help patients and their families make informed health care decisions.
Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s leading integrated health care providers and serves 12.5 million members. Nationally, 24 of the 39 Kaiser Permanente hospitals that were eligible for a grade, more than 60% percent, received a Leapfrog Safety A grade. In contrast, approximately 30% of the nation’s hospitals received an A rating.
For complete details on Kaiser Antioch’s grade click, here and for more information and a complete list of the hospital safety grades, visit Leapfrog.
The John A. Nejedly Bridge in Antioch. Photo: BATA
By Marc Joffe
As if the $1 toll hike on January 1, 2025, is not enough, commissioners at the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) plan to approve a series of five fifty cent increases starting in 2026. By 2030, tolls on the Bay Area’s seven state-owned bridges will reach $10.50 for FasTrak users and $11.50 for drivers paying by invoice. Included in the increase are these four bridges with landings in Contra Costa County:
Antioch (Senator John A. Nejedly) Bridge
Benicia-Martinez (George Miller) Bridge
Carquinez Bridge
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
Aside from toll hikes, motorists are facing a gasoline price increase arising from the California Air Resources Board’s recent imposition of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. According to a research center at the University of Pennsylvania, LCFS could cost drivers up to 85 cents extra per gallon. And this is on top of California’s highly elevated fuel prices, driven by taxes that rise annually under SB1 (2018).
Despite increasing maintenance costs, the Bay Area bridges are quite profitable. BATA expects total revenue of $1.058 billion this year. The costs of operating the bridges, running FasTrak, and paying debt service are projected to total just $757 million, leaving $300 million to spare.
As BATA admits in its own FAQ on the toll increase, $3.00 of the current $7.00 toll is already being siphoned off for purposes other than bridge operations, maintenance, and seismic safety (this will increase to $4.00 of $8.00 on January 1). For example, almost $6 million is diverted annually to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority to operate its empty bus terminal and to pursue its hopeless plan to bring high-speed rail trains into the Salesforce Transit Center. Bridge toll money is also being used to subsidize Bay Area ferries, SF Muni, AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit, and the NAPA Vine bus service.
The toll hike on the Antioch Bridge is especially egregious. BATA is charging the same tolls on all its bridges despite their vastly different lengths. The Bay Bridge is 8.4 miles long while the Antioch Bridge is just 1.8 miles long. Also, unlike all other Bay Area bridges, the Antioch Bridge has just one lane in each direction.
And then there is the question of income. While many Bay Area drivers are wealthy enough to easily absorb the toll hike, that is less true of people living near the Antioch Bridge. According to Census Reporter, Antioch’s per capita income is only 56 percent of the average for the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro region. Rio Vista, the first sizable community on the north side of the bridge, clocks in at just 67 percent of the metro area’s income per person.
At minimum, BATA should exempt the Antioch Bridge from its planned toll hikes. But better yet, the Authority should shelve its entire toll increase plan, stop siphoning off toll money for other purposes, and live within its means.
Marc Joffe is President of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association.
Bay Bridge Toll Plaza photos taken 9 /16 & 8/13. By Karl Nielsen courtesy of MTC
Until Dec. 18
Board considering increasing to as high as $11.50 to pay “exclusively for bridge preservation and operations” in spite of three voter-approved $1 increases
“A Thanksgiving/holiday season decision is a hide the ball strategy. Not good.” – State Senator Steve Glazer
By John Goodwin & Rebecca Long, MTC
November 20, 2024 update: The public comment period on the Bay Area Toll Authority’s proposed toll increase and HOV policy changes is extended through the end of public comment heard on the agenda item for BATA’s December 18, 2024 meeting. All public written and oral comments provided through that time will be incorporated into the record. However, in order for comments to be summarized and published in the agenda packet and distributed in advance of consideration of this item at the December 11, 2024, BATA Oversight Committee meeting, they must be submitted by 5 p.m. December 3, 2024.
BATA — which is required by state law to fund projects to preserve and protect the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges — today heard again a proposal for a toll increase that would be used only to pay for the maintenance, rehabilitation and operation of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. If approved by BATA at its December 18 meeting, the toll increase would be phased in over five years, beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Source: BATA
The toll increase proposal includes a tiered rate structure aimed at encouraging more customers to pay electronically with FasTrak® toll tags, as this form of payment carries lower administrative costs than payment through a license plate account or returning payment with an invoice received by mail. Under the proposal, customers would pay a premium for using a pre-registered license plate account or for invoiced tolling. To give customers ample time to sign up for FasTrak, this premium would not begin until 2027.
The proposed toll hike is separate from the $3 increase approved by Bay Area voters in 2018 through Regional Measure 3 to finance a comprehensive suite of highway and transit improvements around the region. The first of the three $1 Regional Measure 3 toll increases went into effect in 2019, followed by another in 2022. The last of the RM 3 toll hikes will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025, bringing the toll for regular two-axle cars and trucks to $8.
The proposal heard today by BATA calls for tolls for all regular two-axle cars and trucks to increase to $8.50 on Jan. 1, 2026. Tolls for customers who pay with FasTrak tags would then rise to $9 in 2027; to $9.50 in 2028; to $10 in 2029; and then to $10.50 in 2030. Tolls for customers who use a pre-registered license plate account would rise to $9.25 in 2027; to $9.75 in 2028; to $10.25 in 2029 and to $10.75 in 2030. Invoiced tolls would rise to $10 in 2027; $10.50 in 2028; $11 in 2029; and $11.50 in 2030. The Golden Gate Bridge has used a tiered pricing schedule since 2014. Golden Gate Bridge tolls by July 2028 will range from $11.25 for FasTrak to $11.50 for license plate accounts to $12.25 for invoice customers.
Source: BATA
Under the proposed toll increase, tolls for large freight trucks and other vehicle/trailer combinations with three or more axles would rise by 50 cents per axle each year from 2026 through 2030.
“I’m sensitive to the overall cost of living in the Bay Area,” acknowledged Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza, who also serves as chair of both BATA and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). “Working families really feel the impact, not just in transportation but back at home with utilities, groceries, children. This one is hard. But it’s the right thing to do.”
BATA and MTC invite members of the public to weigh in on the proposed toll increase during a comment period that begins Monday, Nov.4, and continues through the end of BATA’s Dec. 18 meeting. Comments may be sent via email to info@bayareametro.gov. As part of its regular November meeting, BATA today held a public hearing in San Francisco to receive testimony about the proposal from Bay Area residents, businesses and other interested parties.
Today’s presentation by BATA and MTC staff also proposed updates to the policies for high-occupancy vehicles on approaches to the Bay Area’s state-owned toll bridges. These updates would take effect Jan. 1, 2026, concurrent with the proposed toll increase. BATA’s existing toll schedule allows vehicles with three or more occupants (HOV 3+) a discounted toll, with a two-person (HOV 2) occupancy requirement for half-price tolls at the Dumbarton and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. BATA and MTC staff propose to establish a uniform three-person occupancy requirement for half-price tolls during weekday commute periods at all seven bridges. Carpool vehicles at all state-owned bridges must use a dedicated carpool lane and pay their tolls with a FasTrak Flex toll tag set to the ‘3’ position to receive the 50 percent discount available weekdays from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The proposed carpool policy changes also would allow vehicles with two occupants and a switchable FasTrak Flex toll tag set to the ‘2’ position to use the carpool lanes on the approaches to the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. These two-occupant vehicles would not receive the 50 percent carpool discount but would be able to use the carpool lanes to save time traveling through the toll plazas. Use of the carpool lanes on approaches to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge still would require a minimum of three occupants.
The new carpool policy proposals are designed to improve safety on the toll bridge approaches by minimizing ‘weaving’ between lanes and to increase person-throughput by prioritizing access for buses and carpools. The policy change also would optimize lane configurations as now-obsolete toll booths are removed as part of the coming transition to open-road tolling.
Removing spalled on concrete on pier cap 305. Photo: CalTrans
BATA, which is directed by the same policy board as MTC, administers toll revenues from the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges. Toll revenues from the Golden Gate Bridge are administered by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which joined with BATA to operate a single regional FasTrak customer service center in San Francisco. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
In response to a post of the link to this press release on X/Twitter on Wednesday, Nov. 30, State Senator Steve Glazer, who represents most of Contra Costa County, protested the proposed toll hikes writing, “Why was this need not identified and incorporated during the last toll increase in 2018? You don’t buy a boat and a new car when you don’t have the $ to fix the roof! A Thanksgiving/holiday season decision is a hide the ball strategy. Not good.”
Scott Bergerhouse and part of the “Thank You” message on his campaign Facebook page.
By Allen D. Payton
After the latest results were provided on Friday afternoon, Nov. 15 by the Contra Costa County Elections office, candidate for Antioch School Board Area 3 Trustee Scott Bergerhouse conceded to and congratulated his opponent, Dee Brown and thanked those who voted for him.
In a post on his campaign Facebook page on Sunday, Nov. 17, which he added to later, the former district administrator, high school principal and first-time candidate wrote, “Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign, showed up to events, volunteered, and cast your vote. Although the results were not what we hoped for, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to connect with our community and share a vision for putting students first.
I want to congratulate Dee Brown and Olga Comos-Smith and offer my best wishes as they step into this role. Our schools, students and families deserve a strong advocate, and I am hopeful for the future of our district.
Thank you again for your support, encouragement, and commitment to our schools. This journey may be ending, but my dedication to our community and to the success of every student in Antioch remains as strong as ever.”
Source: Contra Costa County Elections
The latest unofficial election results update show Brown continuing to lead Bergherhouse by 594 votes. She has 4,675 votes of 53.39% to his 4,081 votes or 46.61% of the vote.
The Elections Division of the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office also shared the following information about the remaining ballots to be processed in the county:
Ballots voted at a voting location – 0
Vote-by-mail ballots received on or before Election Day – 0
Vote-by-mail ballots received after Election Day – 600
Next Results Expected: Friday, 11/22/2024, 4:00PM.
———————-
Brown and Area 4 Trustee-Elect Olga Comos-Smith are expected to be sworn in at the school board’s next meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, inside the AUSD District Office Board Room at 510 G Street.
No injuries so far in city’s 25th shooting since Sept. 2nd; police seek suspect(s)
By Lt. John Fortner, Antioch Police Field Services Division
At 1:47 p.m., the Antioch Police Dispatch Center received a 9-1-1 call reporting numerous gunshots coming from the 1200 block of Sycamore Drive.
When officers arrived at the scene, they located several bullet casings in the roadway and a discarded pistol on the ground. At the time of this investigation no victims have been identified or come forward.
The investigation is still active, and evidence is being collected.
The police department has been assigning officers to patrol this area and will be increasing the coverage times.
It’s the 25th shooting in Antioch since Sept. 2nd, with 21 of them in the Sycamore corridor. The shooting is also the seventh since the council approved the Violence Reduction Initiative, last month, which is focused on both that area of the city and the Cavallo Road / E. 18th area.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Antioch Police Department non-emergency line at (925 )778-2441, the Investigations Bureau at (925) 779-6925, or email a tip to tips@antiochca.gov.
We are in the season of giving back so we are hosting a coat and blanket drive! Please share with family and friends! We will also accept hats, gloves, scarves and sanitary items such as wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, Q-Tip’s, Band-Aids and feminine hygiene products. The giveaway will be this Sunday, Nov. 24, during our feed the unhoused community event!
Drop off your donation at 840 W. 3rd Street in historic, downtown Rivertown between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
It typically takes over a month for the Contra Costa Superior Court to process filings in limited civil cases. In fact, more like 6 weeks.
This compares badly with other superior courts throughout the state.
In San Diego Superior, for example, I’ve had papers processed within hours. In Marin County Superior Court, I’ve had papers processed within 1 or 2 days.
This is a real problem because justice delayed is justice denied.
This is a ridiculously long time when it only takes a few minutes to do the processing.
Yes, I understand that they have a lot of filings to process…but with a lot of filing don’t they also have a lot of taxpayer funding commensurate with the size of the population of the county?
So why is Contra Costa so much slower than other counties?
