Daily Business Report-Jan. 11, 2019
Exam room at the Senior Emergency Care Unit (Photos courtesy of UC San Diego Health)
UC San Diego Health opens California’s first
accredited Senior Emergency Care Unit
UC San Diego Health has opened a state-of-the-art unit specialized in treating seniors requiring emergency health care. The Gary and Mary West Emergency Department at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla is the first in California to treat qualifying patients over the age of 65 in a dedicated space customized for geriatric emergency care.
The accredited geriatric emergency department features architectural design elements for older patients, such as carefully calibrated lighting and improved acoustics, safety and comfort. The customized waiting room boasts chairs with high backs and sturdy arms and legs to assist seniors in sitting and standing. The 11 new SECU patient rooms are equipped with sound-absorbing walls and ceilings to reduce ambient noise; a variable lighting system that orients patients to the actual time of day; and contrasting colors between walls and floors and between toilet and chair seats and floors improve mobility and reduce fall risk.
“Senior patients face common complications, such as being at a high risk for falls and cognitive and memory problems. All patients in the SECU are treated by a team with special training in geriatric medicine, including pharmacists to manage medications and social workers to ensure a smooth transition home upon discharge,” said Ted Chan, MD, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UC San Diego Health. “Our goal with the SECU is to lower hospital admissions and re-admissions in this patient population.”
Other notable features of the SECU include a nursing station visible from all patient rooms and a private lounge to offer caregivers and others with a place to relax when visits last longer than anticipated. The SECU also features original artwork from local San Diego surf artist Aaron Chang.
The SECU was made possible by an $11.8 million grant from Gary and Mary West. The grant enables research initiatives between UC San Diego Health and the West Health Institute to identify, evaluate and disseminate best practices in geriatric emergency care.
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Big deals, life sciences push U.S.
VC in 2018 to dot-com boom levels
By Sarah de Crescenzo | Editor, Xconomy San Diego
Venture capital investments rose in 2018 to levels not seen since the heady days of 2000, the last year U.S. startups collectively took in more than $100 billion.
That’s according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association’s Venture Monitor report, released this week, which tallied nearly 9,000 deals made last year, through which venture investors sunk $130.9 billion into companies. That was about 500 fewer deals than in the year prior, but the total amount invested increased by $47.9 billion compared to 2017, continuing a trend of bigger checks going to fewer deals.
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Commentary
A cautious budget with a bold housing plan
By Dan Walters | CALmatters
Jerry Brown is a hard act to follow but his successor as governor, Gavin Newsom, acquitted himself well – if very lengthily – in presenting his first state budget on Thursday. For nearly two hours, Newsom explained his $209.1 billion 2019-20 budget and fielded questions from reporters, displaying in minute knowledge its provisions and underlying issues.
Newsom’s major point, which he repeatedly stressed, was that even with the state treasury flush with billions of extra tax dollars, he’s being careful about making long-term commitments that could backfire in a recession and, instead, is devoting the vast majority of those dollars to one-time spending and/or paying down debt, including unfunded pension liabilities.
In effect, he’s continuing Brown’s cautious approach to expensive commitments, while offering one-time appropriations and start-up funds for the ambitious expansion of health care, early childhood services and other big-ticket programs he also advocates.
While Newsom stressed the budget’s finances, it’s also a policy document whose most important segment deals with the state’s most pressing issue, a chronic and growing shortage of housing that has driven costs sky-high, discouraged private sector investment and caused the state to have the nation’s highest level of poverty. Brown was only tangentially interested in housing, but Newsom is fully embracing the issue and is pledging vigorous, even coercive, action to deal with it, pointing out that since 2007, the state has built only 40 percent of the housing it needs.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.
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Philip Armstrong named president of San Diego ASLA chapter
The American Society of Landscape Architects, San Diego chapter (ASLA-SD) has selected Philip Armstrong to be its president in 2019. With nearly 30 years of professional experience as a licensed landscape architect, Armstrong is senior landscape architect at The Lightfoot Planning Group, where he oversees staff resources and provides insight and support for a variety of project markets in both private and public sectors.
Armstrong’s varied experience of shepherding projects from concept through construction includes development support of residential communities, design of K-12 and community college campuses, sports-field design, municipal facilities, streetscapes, and habitat-restoration projects. He also provides assistance to Lightfoot’s planning staff on a variety of master- and specific-planning projects. Armstrong has a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from UC Davis and is a resident of the La Costa neighborhood of Carlsbad.
The San Diego chapter’s biggest event this year will be hosting the national 2019 Conference on Landscape Architecture in November with over 7,000 landscape architects from around the country and the globe expected to be in attendance.
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Realtors association to host ‘2019 Legal Update’
The Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors (PSAR) will host its “2019 Legal Update” with Gov Hutchinson, assistant general counsel with the California Association of Realtors (CAR), from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 24, at PSAR’s South County Service Center, 880 Canarios Court, Chula Vista. Hutchinson, who manages CAR’s Member Legal Services Program and advises Realtors through CAR’s Legal Hotline, will share the latest information on real estate-related legal cases and new laws, as well as rule changes on disclosure and other CAR transaction forms. Hutchinson has worked at CAR since 1985. Cost to attend is $5 for PSAR members, $10 for nonmembers. Lunch will be served starting at 11:30 a.m. To RSVP, call (619) 579-0333 or visit www.psar.org/gov.
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Personnel Announcements
Lindsey Langston joins Intersection as senior marketing coordinator
Intersection, a commercial real estate management and investment advisory firm, has hired Lindsey Langston as its new senior marketing coordinator. Langston brings more than 15 years of commercial property and customer service experience to Intersection’s synergetic and top tier team.
Prior to joining Intersection, Langston worked with CBRE Capital Markets working with a team of brokers who specialized in retail leasing and investment sales. During her tenure, she supported the brokerage division with property marketing, brochure creation and managed all listing information for a team that completed over $1billion in transactions.
Langston’s new role with Intersection will bring together her real estate and marketing expertise to enhance the efforts of the entire San Diego brokerage team on all of its listings.
Intersection is currently recruiting brokers with six openings in its Downtown San Diego offices and a new office opening in Carlsbad in the near future.
