Denim Jeans are still in style and will still take its stand in the women and men fashion clothes. Its comforts and styles are more preferable than old fashion slacks. Though jeans connotes informality yet it also brings the person in you more simplified and well put.
So, if you ever be going to a date, don’t hesitate to wear your favorite jeans…
Anaheim General Hospital may lose funding
BY COURTNEY PERKES and ADAM TOWNSEND
Anaheim General Hospital could lose crucial government funding after a surprise inspection found serious threats to patient safety including medicines stored at improper temperatures, lack of drugs to treat a potentially fatal reaction to anesthesia, and not enough food or water on hand in case of an emergency.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has accepted Anaheim General's lengthy plan of correction but the hospital must pass another unannounced inspection before Aug. 9 to avoid losing Medicare funding. Such sanctions are rare and hospitals usually make the needed changes to keep their Medicare contract, said Medicare spokesman Jack Cheevers.
The 143-bed Anaheim General is owned by Pacific Health Corp. of Tustin. Pacific Health's president and chief executive officer James Young defended the hospital's care to patients during a public hearing this week on the company's proposed $57 million purchase of Anaheim Memorial Medical Center.
"I can assure you these deficiencies have been corrected at Anaheim General, and we are simply awaiting being re-surveyed," Young said. "What you won't hear today is adverse medical outcomes, such as operating on a wrong limb, or misdiagnoses leading to harm to patients. These are all outcomes that have been reported at other Orange County hospitals with good reputations."
Hospitals are dependent on Medicare funding because it is so substantial. Also, if Medicare pulls out, generally other insurers follow and that can put a hospital out of business. According to state data, out of 3,398 patients discharged last year by Anaheim General, 1,421 were insured by Medicare.
Cheevers could not provide the figure of how much Medicare funding Anaheim General received last year.
During a February visit, health investigators found five situations of "immediate jeopardy," according to the inspection report.
"That's a very serious finding," Cheevers said. "That's the most serious finding we can make."
In addition to violations for improper storage of medicine, lack of medication in the operating room for treating malignant hyperthermia, which is a rare reaction to anesthesia, and lack of food and water for an emergency or disaster, the report also found:
•failure to ensure safety of medical equipment, including a dirty infant warmer, and removal of hazards – such as bed sheets – from psychiatric patients
•lack of qualified dietary staff to oversee patients' meals
The immediate jeopardy findings were corrected in March, according to the government's inspection report.
The 189-page report includes other deficiencies such as: failing to provide minimum nurse staffing levels for some departments, improper off-site medical record storage and failing to obtain informed consent signatures of patients undergoing surgery.
Among changes made in response by Anaheim General: hiring a full-time food service director who is a registered dietician, hiring a full-time service consultant to inspect all patient care equipment, adding staffing to the pharmacy and starting a medication error reduction program.
Discussion of quality of care at the hospital came up Thursday during a meeting called by the state attorney general over whether Pacific Health, a for-profit company, should be allowed to buy the nonprofit Anaheim Memorial Medical Center.
One speaker, David Thiessen, chief of quality management for the Orange County Health Care Agency, cited Pacific Health's closure last year of the emergency room at Tustin Hospital as well as the Medicare inspection. Thiessen said the agency "has a number of concerns" about what would happen if the hospital were purchased by Pacific Health.
At the hearing, Young pointed out that many hospital operators simply close unprofitable hospitals, while Pacific Health has continued to operate "safety net hospitals" throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Contact the writer: 714-796-3686 or cperkes@ocregister.com
By MAR-VIC CAGURANGAN
Special to BusinessMirror
HAGATNA, Guam - If Barack Obama becomes the US president, America’s national policies would somehow be influenced by a Filipino: Charmaine Manansala, who has been selected as a senior adviser to the Democratic party candidate.
Manansala is now the Asian-American and Pacific Islander Vote director for the Obama campaign.
"The Obama campaign acknowledges the extraordinary contributions of the nearly 13 million Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders who have helped build a strong and vibrant America," Manansala stated in her message to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander Network.
"We realize that despite the growth of our community, there are challenges [that] we still face. For increasing numbers of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders [AAPI], the American dream is in danger of slipping away," said Manansala, who served as policy adviser and political strategist for then-Guam gubernatorial candidate Robert Underwood in 2006.
"As president, Senator Obama will work with the AAPI community to ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable and portable health insurance that will also reduce the linguistic and cultural barriers that limit access to our medical system," she added.
Manansala was born in Manila. Her family moved to Orange County in Los Angeles in 1983 to join her grandparents.
She went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in biochemistry. She earned her master’s degree in public health at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Manansala has joined the league of policy analysts and political strategists in the nation’s capital. In 2007, she was on the Filipino Women’s Network’s list of 100 Most Influential Filipinas. In 2001, she was honored by PoliticalCircus.com, as one of the "Top 30 Under 30," which recognizes the most influential Asian-Pacific Americans 30 years and younger in the US.
Prior to her selection as AAPI vote director, Manansala, now based in New Mexico, was the state director for the New Mexico Blue Team, where she was in charge of developing a state plan for political organizers advancing Obama’s candidacy.
Manansala lived in Guam from 2005 to 2006 to lead the campaign strategy for Underwood.
Before her stint in Guam, Manansala served as policy adviser for Speaker Nancy Pelosi from 2003 to 2005.
BY RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com An alliance of overseas Filipino groups branded the European Union’s (EU) new rules on undocumented migrants as "inhumane." Early this month, 27 EU interior ministers voted for rules that would impose penalties of detention for a maximum of 18 months for overstaying migrants, their deportation, along with their children, and blacklisting for five years. If finally approved by the EU Parliament, the rules are to take effect on 2010. Connie Bragas Regalado, chairperson of Migrante International said that the new rules "will bring Europe back to the dark days of the Holocaust." "It will turn Europe into a large concentration camp of millions of undocumented migrants there whose only desire is to eke out a decent living for their families who depend on them back home," she said. There are an estimated 12 million undocumented migrants in Europe , including more than 100,000 Filipinos. The Migrante leader echoed the position of their European chapter that said the rules violate existing treaties, conventions and agreements on migrants and their families such as the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe Resolution 1509, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the UN International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and the members of their Families. Global crackdown But Regalado admitted that the EU's move came as a no surprise; it was even expected. She said that since the so-called US war on terror, attacks on migrants have intensified not only throughout Europe but on a global scale. She cited as an example the amendments to Italy’s policy on immigration sometime in 2002. Before, migrants are given a six-month grace period to process the legalization of their stay. The said amendments, however, reduced the processing time from six months to only two. Failure to do so would result in deportation. Since then, most Filipino migrants, Regalado said, prefer to evade immigration authorities rather than surrender and face deportation. The migrant leader shared stories told by delegates of the recently-concluded International Migrants Assembly held in Hong Kong. "Even legal migrants organizations and their leaders have become targets of the so-called anti-terror measures." She related that in Germany, the offices of Turkish migrant organization ATIK have been raided. In a statement sent through email, John Leonard Monterona, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, lamented, "Even here in the Middle East, there are countries implementing tough immigration measures such as the finger-print system in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and eye-scan in the entire United Arab Emirates." He said that these procedures are mandatory for the issuance of residence or work permits. Monterona also cited the continued crackdown of undocumented OFWs in countries like South Korea and Japan. Regalado said, "In the so-called fight against terror, migrants, especially people of color, have become vulnerable targets." No protection for OFWs Migrante International also scored the Arroyo government’s absence of any protection for migrants, noting that there are no existing bilateral agreements between the Arroyo government and host countries. "There is no intention at all to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Isinusubo na lang ang mga OFWs sa masasamang kalagayan. Ang pakay lang ay kumita mula sa pinapadala ng OFWs." (OFWs are being led to cruel situations. The only objective is to earn from OFWs’s dollar remittances.) Monterona said, "The Arroyo administration seems deaf to the calls by OFW organizations and cause-oriented groups to work for the legalization of undocumented OFWs." When faced with difficult situations, Regalado said, the Arroyo government admonishes OFWs to follow the rule of law of the host country. Even if OFWs were raped or have run away from a cruel employer, Regalado said, the Arroyo government does not at all care. She said that the Philippines has been chosen to host the Second Global Forum on Development and Migration in October this year. The main focus of the said informal gathering of heads of states, she said, is how to use migrants and their remittances for development. Regalado said that the Philippines is viewed by other states as a model for good migration management. For migrants though, this means that the Arroyo government is best in exploiting the OFWs. She noted that the Arroyo government intends to further intensify its labor export policy instead of paving the way for national industrialization, which will create jobs for Filipinos in the country. The Migrante International appealed to the EU leaders to junk the new immigration policy. 
