I got a kick out of this webpage, afflicted with mistakes and misspellings:
Arbitration and Kaiser Permanente California
...Nursing staff at Kaiser Sacramento iled to follow proper protocols when the innt showed signs of hypoglyarbitration and kaiser permanentecemia.
...3-year-old boy afflicted with multiple neurological injuries as a result of negligent delivery at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Redwood City...
That page led me to this far-more-sophisticated page:
California Birth Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Brain Damage Attorneys
Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger
...Nurse Error
In a case involving cerebral palsy and cortical blindness, our birth injury attorneys represented a Sonoma County family in a claim seeking damages for their 5-year-old daughter's brain damage. The little girl was the first child for a 42-year-old mother who should have been treated as a high-risk pregnancy but was not. The defendant doctor was a family practitioner who should have referred the mother and babies care to a high risk OB program. During a prolonged labor the expectant mother failed to progress and the child's fetal monitor strip demonstrated worrisome heart rate decelerations after contractions but the attending nurses ignored these. Experts retained by Walkup birth injury attorneys analyzed the monitoring strips and identified multiple indications of fetal stress. Our nursing experts were prepared to testify that the attending nurses should have called an on call obstetrician to perform a prompt C-section under these circumstances In mediation, our lawyers negotiated one of the largest settlements in Sonoma County history, payable both in cash and monthly installments to take care of the child now and throughout her projected life expectancy. The settlement was crafted so that future payments will increase with inflation and will be sufficient to pay for therapy, attendant care, visual and verbal stimulation, and future lost wages. A special needs trust was also established to preserve the child's ability to receive public benefits in the future.
- Brain Damage
Our birth injury settlement attorneys obtained a mediated settlement in a major obstetrical injury case involving anoxic brain damage and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The case was brought on behalf of a two-year-old Sonoma County boy who sustained global brain damage when fetal distress was neither noted nor responded to during his birth. The settlement also included resolution of his parent's claims for emotional distress and his potential future wrongful death. The parents recovery was limited to the unfair and discriminatory limit of $250,000 per claim imposed by California's outdated MICRA statute. A special needs trust was established with an initial corpus of more than $1,250,000 into which future annuity payments (commencing at $5,000 per month, increasing at 5% annually, for life, guaranteed 20 years) are to be deposited. A second, separate, annuity will begin paying an additional $4,000 per month, increasing at 4% per year, when the child reaches his 18th birthday. Because the child is eligible for both CCS and Regional Center benefits until he reaches the age of three, the past out of pocket expenditures made by the parents have been modest - as a result, the settlement was designed to be back-loaded (and guaranteed) to protect against the cost of custodial and attendant care in a home-based environment in the future. The settlement is believed to be among the largest ever negotiated on behalf of a North Bay plan member of this HMO.
- Anoxic Brain Damage
Our traumatic brain injury attorneys obtained a cash and annuity settlement having a present cash value of more than $5,000,000 on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who sustained irreparable brain damage during her birth process. The defendant in the case was a national health maintenance organization. The obstetricians employed by the health maintenance organization failed to correctly analyze or diagnose signs of fetal distress as shown on fetal monitoring tapes Our brain injury attorneys hired experts in obstetrics and perinatology to testify that a timely cesarean section, occurring 45 minutes or more before the actual birth, would have prevented the child from sustaining anoxic brain damage (brain cell death due to lack of oxygen). Attorneys for the defendant health care provider attempted to prove that the child's brain injuries were not the result of oxygen deprivation during the labor process, but rather were the result of an infection, which the mother experienced one month before her delivery. When combined with available benefits provided by private insurance and government programs, the guaranteed future monthly and annual payments to be made under the settlement should assure that the his medical and special needs will be met regardless of his life expectancy.
- Prolonged Labor Infant Death
Our obstetrical injury lawyers resolved this birth injury case, in the maximum amount permitted by California's Medical Malpractice statutes ( MICRA ) on behalf of the parents of a newborn infant who died after his mother's uterus ruptured. The mother was admitted to the hospital with contractions, but was sent home several hours later because the nurses felt she was not progressing. Once home, she began to experience severe abdominal pain. By the time the defendant doctors realized that the infant was outside the uterus in the abdominal cavity, an emergency cesarean section was unsuccessful in saving the childs life. Walkup Melodia birth injury attorneys, working with expert witnesses in the fields of perinatology and obstetrics, demonstrated that the mother should never have been sent home from the hospital, and that if she had been monitored properly, her uterine rupture would have been anticipated, avoided and a safe and timely cesarean section performed.
- Failure to Recognize Fetal Distress
Our birth injury attorneys negotiated a cash and annuity settlement with a present cash value in excess of five million dollars on behalf of an infant born with severe developmental delay, spastic quadriparesis, and permanent neurological injuries after Kaiser San Francisco doctors and nursing staff failed to monitor the mother and deliver the baby quickly when fetal heart monitors indicated severe distress. The 36-year-old mother's pregnancy and delivery seemed to be progressing normally when, 8 hours after being admitted to the hospital, she developed a high fever. The doctor on call administered antibiotics for suspected chorioamnionitis, (an inflammation of the amniotic membranes), and said he would check back in an hour. Nearly three hours later, the fetal heart rate monitors indicated that the baby's heart rate had dropped to 85 and 90, and remained there for about 10 minutes, prompting a frightened nurse to contact the doctor. Deceleration of the fetal heart rate is a common effect of chorioamnionitis. The infant was born a half hour later, by emergent vacuum extraction, with no heart rate, and appearing blue, floppy, and apneic. She was resuscitated through chest compressions and intubation. In the days following her birth, the infant exhibited general seizures with tremors in the lower and upper extremities. An MRI performed 8 days after her birth revealed that the infant had severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The child will remain fully dependant for all of her care needs for her entire life. She is not expected to develop beyond the level of a one-month-old infant. Liability was based upon failure to aggressively monitor the mother and fetus post administration of antibiotics and failure to deliver the baby when infection was first suspected.
- Failure to Diagnose Down Syndrome
Our Birth Injury Specialists obtained a wrongful birth settlement in the amount of $875,000 when a child was born with Down syndrome. The pregnancy was considered high risk because the mother was 34-years-old and pregnant with twins. In violation of its own policy regarding high-risk pregnancies, the medical center failed to offer the mother an opportunity to undergo amniocentesis and Chorionic Villus Sampling early in course of her pregnancy. Had the doctors detected Down Syndrome with these tests, the mother could have been offered "selective reduction" to terminate the fetus that was determined to be the one with a birth defect. The parents brought claims for emotional distress and economic damages resulting from the complications of Down syndrome through the child's minority. In addition, an economic damages claim was brought for the child himself, for the cost to treat complications in his majority.
- Failure To Perform Timely Cesarean Section
In another case involving cerebral palsy, our birth injury attorneys obtained a binding and final arbitration award against Kaiser, following a two week arbitration. That arbitration award had a present cash value of $4,100,000 and was secured on behalf of a 3-year-old boy afflicted with multiple neurological injuries as a result of negligent delivery. Our birth injury team of attorneys and physician experts were able to prove that the infant endured a period of oxygen deprivation when his mother's uterus ruptured. The uterine rupture was due to an attending midwife's failure to properly manage the mother while in labor. Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger attorneys also proved that obstetrical nurses left the mother unattended prior to the rupture of her uterus, and for that reason failed to appreciate ominous signs of the baby's distress as reported on a fetal heart monitor. Before the beginning of the arbitration, Kaiser had made no settlement offer.
- Delayed Admittance to Hospital (Cerebral Palsy)
Our birth injury trial team negotiated a pre-trial mediated settlement on behalf of a child who suffered profound injuries when her mother's uterus ruptured at the site of a previous myomectomy (surgery to remove a fibroid in the uterine wall). Two weeks prior to the baby's emergent delivery, the child's mother was hospitalized in pre-term labor. After being medicated and released, she was advised to observe strict bed rest and communicate with her OBGYN's office. At 10:00 p.m. the evening before delivery, the parents called to report painful contractions. Without determining the onset, frequency, characteristics or location of the pain suffered by the mother, an on-duty advice nurse told the mother to take an additional dose of her anti-contraction medication and call if her condition worsened. Eight hours later, the mother awoke in severe pain. Her husband called 911. She was taken to a local hospital where the child was delivered by emergency C-section at 32 weeks gestation. We proved that the doctors employees were employees were negligent in failing to order the mother to the hospital at the time of the phone call. The child was diagnosed with periventricular leukomalacia, and later developed infantile spasms and cerebral palsy. The settlement was composed of both an initial cash payment and guaranteed monthly future annuity payments to offset the cost of future medical, therapy, laboratory and attendant care.
- Failure to Recognize Neonatal Hypoglycemia
Our attorneys obtained a mediated settlement of $2,250,000 on behalf of a male infant who now suffers from blindness, developmental delay and cognitive deficits, and who also had his pancreas removed, after nursing staff failed to follow proper protocols when the infant showed signs of hypoglycemia. The infant was born weighing 10 pounds, 7-1/2 ounces, which should have triggered blood screening tests at one, two, four, six and eight hours of age. Any tests revealing low blood sugar levels required that a blood sample be drawn and sent for analysis. In this case, the infant's six-hour test was conducted at seven hours of age, and came back showing low blood sugar. However, the protocol requiring that blood be drawn and sent to the lab was not followed. The infant's parents were never told of the abnormal result or warned to look for signs of hypoglycemia. At 24 hours of age, the infant and his parents were discharged. On the second morning at home, his mother had a hard time rousing him, and he presented at Urgent Care lethargic, not nursing, and with purple feet. He then suffered several seizures and was admitted to the hospital. Tests revealed that he had nesidioblastosis, a disease of the pancreas, resulting in profound, unremitting hypoglycemia. An MRI revealed evidence of posterior cerebral artery infarction, consistent with the diagnosis of severe hypoglycemia. Ultimately, nearly all of the infant's pancreas had to be removed. The settlement in this case was structured to pay monthly guaranteed payments to help offset future costs of attendant and nursing care and to supplement health insurance coverage and public program benefits, plus $732,000 to be paid into a trust on the infant's behalf.
- Infant Death (Uterine Rupture)
Our medical malpractice obstetrical injury lawyers resolved this birth injury case, in a confidential amount, on behalf of the parents of a 2-day-old infant who died after his mother's uterus ruptured during labor. The mother was admitted to the hospital with contractions, but was sent home several hours later because the nurses felt she was not progressing. Once home, she began to experience severe abdominal pain. By the time doctors realized that the infant was outside the uterus in the abdominal cavity, an emergency cesarean section was unsuccessful in delivering the baby before it suffered severe compromise. The child died two days later. Our attorneys demonstrated that the mother should never have been sent home from the hospital, and that had she been monitored properly, her impending uterine rupture would have been recognized, and a timely cesarean section would have been performed. The claim of our clients sought damages for the wrongful death of their daughter as well as the mother's personal injuries.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Patient advocacy group funded by success of painkiller drugs, probe finds
Patient advocacy group funded by success of painkiller drugs, probe finds
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber
Washington Post
December 23, 2011
The news about narcotic painkillers is increasingly dire: Overdoses now kill nearly 15,000 people a year — more than heroin and cocaine combined. In some states, the painkiller death toll exceeds that of car crashes.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared the overdoses from opioid drugs like OxyContin an “epidemic.” And a growing group of experts doubts that they work for long-term pain.
But the pills continue to have an influential champion in the American Pain Foundation, which describes itself as the nation’s largest advocacy group for pain patients. Its message: The risk of addiction is overblown, and the drugs are underused.
What the nonprofit doesn’t highlight is the money behind that message.
The foundation collected nearly 90 percent of its $5 million funding last year from the drug and medical-device industry — and closely mirrors its positions, an examination by ProPublica found.
Although the foundation maintains it is sticking up for the needs of millions of suffering patients, records and interviews show that it favors those who want to preserve access to the drugs over those who worry about their risks.
Some of the foundation’s board members have extensive financial ties to drugmakers, ProPublica found, and the group has lobbied against federal and state proposals to limit opioid use. Painkiller sales have increased fourfold since 1999, but the foundation argues that pain remains widely undertreated.
The group says industry money has had no effect on its advocacy.
“I’m convinced with every shred of my body that our interest is improving the lives of people affected by pain,” said Will Rowe, the foundation’s chief executive, “and we want to do that the best way we can.”
The problem isn’t opioids, Rowe and other group leaders say. It’s poorly trained doctors who prescribe them too easily or in excess.
Yet, critics say the Baltimore-based foundation is making it harder to address a major public-health problem.
“If you were a drug company, wouldn’t it be smart to make it look like you had a patient-oriented group?” said Gary Franklin, a Washington state official who tussled with the foundation over new restrictions on high-dose painkillers.
Its funding makes the group “one and the same” with the pain industry, Franklin said.
ProPublica’s review found that the foundation’s guides for patients, journalists and policymakers play down the risks associated with opioids and exaggerate their benefits. Opioids, derived from the opium plant, reduce the perception of pain by attaching to opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord and elsewhere in the body.
Some of the foundation’s materials on the drugs include statements that are misleading or based on scant or disputed research.
The group’s board includes some patients but also doctors who are paid to speak and consult for drug companies, a researcher whose clinic has relied on their funding for survival and a public-relations executive whose firm represents them.
Last year, one board member was the lead author of a study about a Cephalon drug. Cephalon sponsored the study, and its employees were co-authors. The study found that the drug, Fentora, was “generally safe and well-tolerated” in non-cancer patients even though it is only approved for severe cancer pain...
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber
Washington Post
December 23, 2011
The news about narcotic painkillers is increasingly dire: Overdoses now kill nearly 15,000 people a year — more than heroin and cocaine combined. In some states, the painkiller death toll exceeds that of car crashes.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared the overdoses from opioid drugs like OxyContin an “epidemic.” And a growing group of experts doubts that they work for long-term pain.
But the pills continue to have an influential champion in the American Pain Foundation, which describes itself as the nation’s largest advocacy group for pain patients. Its message: The risk of addiction is overblown, and the drugs are underused.
What the nonprofit doesn’t highlight is the money behind that message.
The foundation collected nearly 90 percent of its $5 million funding last year from the drug and medical-device industry — and closely mirrors its positions, an examination by ProPublica found.
Although the foundation maintains it is sticking up for the needs of millions of suffering patients, records and interviews show that it favors those who want to preserve access to the drugs over those who worry about their risks.
Some of the foundation’s board members have extensive financial ties to drugmakers, ProPublica found, and the group has lobbied against federal and state proposals to limit opioid use. Painkiller sales have increased fourfold since 1999, but the foundation argues that pain remains widely undertreated.
The group says industry money has had no effect on its advocacy.
“I’m convinced with every shred of my body that our interest is improving the lives of people affected by pain,” said Will Rowe, the foundation’s chief executive, “and we want to do that the best way we can.”
The problem isn’t opioids, Rowe and other group leaders say. It’s poorly trained doctors who prescribe them too easily or in excess.
Yet, critics say the Baltimore-based foundation is making it harder to address a major public-health problem.
“If you were a drug company, wouldn’t it be smart to make it look like you had a patient-oriented group?” said Gary Franklin, a Washington state official who tussled with the foundation over new restrictions on high-dose painkillers.
Its funding makes the group “one and the same” with the pain industry, Franklin said.
ProPublica’s review found that the foundation’s guides for patients, journalists and policymakers play down the risks associated with opioids and exaggerate their benefits. Opioids, derived from the opium plant, reduce the perception of pain by attaching to opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord and elsewhere in the body.
Some of the foundation’s materials on the drugs include statements that are misleading or based on scant or disputed research.
The group’s board includes some patients but also doctors who are paid to speak and consult for drug companies, a researcher whose clinic has relied on their funding for survival and a public-relations executive whose firm represents them.
Last year, one board member was the lead author of a study about a Cephalon drug. Cephalon sponsored the study, and its employees were co-authors. The study found that the drug, Fentora, was “generally safe and well-tolerated” in non-cancer patients even though it is only approved for severe cancer pain...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
CalPERS Lack of Auditing of Kaiser Permanente Services
Kaiser Permanent employees labor under a draconian contract which prevents any physician or nurse who witnesses abuse or abandonment from notifying anyone of the problem.
CalPERS Lack of Auditing of Kaiser Permanente Services
Resulting in Patient Abandonment, Violation of Elder Abuse Laws
Sacramento, California
12th of Jul, 2011 by User936345
In many ways, CalPERS does an excellent job for California State retirees. However, that description does not extend to the monitoring of Kaiser Permanente, and the many systems Kaiser has in place to frustrate the reporting of retiree abuse, and abandonment. Obviously, CalPERS wants to hear good stories about Kaiser. After all, they are providing service to tens of thousands of State and local retirees. How horrible would it be for CalPERS to discover that the lack of complaints is due to the clever methods Kaiser Permanente has established for sheltering CalPERS from what they "don't need to know."
So what are these mechanisms that prevent nary a complaint from ever reaching CalPERS? They are many, including:
-A Member Services "complaint" system that can often take several weeks, a system that serves to defuse patient anger, but never results in a decision favorable to a retiree. So-called "resolutions" are simply word for word transcriptions of rationales supplied by offending physicians. There is never a meeting with a supervisor. Never a contact from the physician. The "case worker" analyzing the complaint has no medical training because she does not need any, since the finding is a foregone conclusion.
-An appeals process for Member Services "resolutions" to a nameless committee in either the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles. These committees meet in secret, and the names of the attendees are never divulged to patients or their medical representatives. Again, a case worker without medical training is in charge of the paperwork, and, again, the result is a foregone conclusion. (CalPERS could well paper their offices with the stacks of denials resulting from these secret meetings.)
-RISK MANAGEMENT units: These groups are composed primarily of attorneys who are organized for one purpose only. That is, to reduce the risk to Kaiser Permanente from any patient who has been abused or abandoned. In Northern California, one may find this unit at Kaiser Plaza in Oakland. At the local level, a physician is normally assigned to a so-called MedLegal to refer patient "complaints" to RISK MANAGEMENT for burial.
-Ombudsmen: On each Kaiser campus there exists an Ombudsman. These individuals are typically either non-medical personnel or RN's who are very charming, but will tell patients immediately that they have no power to correct problems relative to medical care. Ombudsmen on Kaiser campuses are not respected by medical personnel. At best, an Ombudsman might serve as a traffic cop. However, if a patient has been abandoned, he or she will stay abandoned. If a patient has been referred to RISK MANAGEMENT, he or she will stay referred to RISK MANAGEMENT.
-THE CONTRACT: Kaiser Permanent employees labor under a draconian contract which prevents any physician or nurse who witnesses abuse or abandonment from notifying anyone of the problem. HIPAA rules and regulations having to do with medical information confidentiality are used by Kaiser in the same way as "national security" is sometimes used by the government, that is, to frustrate the ability of witnesses to have their information considered by proper authorities. In such an environment, it is unlikely that CalPERS will ever hear from all but the most persistent patients. (Illness, discomfort and other factors also play into the inability of retirees to be heard by CalPERS.)
Requesting a more aggressive CalPERS relative to Kaiser Permanente is the first purpose of this complaint. The additional purpose of this complaint is to notify CalPERS that its own systems for receiving and taking action relative to medical malfeasance are deficient. A much more immediate and less impersonal system needs to be designed. A five to ten day turnaround time for all complaints is simply inadequate. Routine surprise audits also need to be conducted by CalPERS of all Kaiser Permanente facilities. Further, the rating systems associated with CalPERS relative to Kaiser Permanente are out of date, and serve only to mislead both active and retired personnel into choosing a service that, as it is currently structured, is dollars vs patient oriented. CalPERS actions taken as a result of this NOTICE will be appreciated by all patient advocates, as well as Kaiser employees who are in positions to witness, but not to openly challenge, a system established for other than patient well being. Kaiser Permanente is not a hopeless organization. However, CalPERS, which siphons millions of dollars into Kaiser coffers every year, must be more diligent in making certain that the intentions of CalPERS and the delivery systems hired to fulfill those intentions are congruous.
CalPERS Lack of Auditing of Kaiser Permanente Services
Resulting in Patient Abandonment, Violation of Elder Abuse Laws
Sacramento, California
12th of Jul, 2011 by User936345
In many ways, CalPERS does an excellent job for California State retirees. However, that description does not extend to the monitoring of Kaiser Permanente, and the many systems Kaiser has in place to frustrate the reporting of retiree abuse, and abandonment. Obviously, CalPERS wants to hear good stories about Kaiser. After all, they are providing service to tens of thousands of State and local retirees. How horrible would it be for CalPERS to discover that the lack of complaints is due to the clever methods Kaiser Permanente has established for sheltering CalPERS from what they "don't need to know."
So what are these mechanisms that prevent nary a complaint from ever reaching CalPERS? They are many, including:
-A Member Services "complaint" system that can often take several weeks, a system that serves to defuse patient anger, but never results in a decision favorable to a retiree. So-called "resolutions" are simply word for word transcriptions of rationales supplied by offending physicians. There is never a meeting with a supervisor. Never a contact from the physician. The "case worker" analyzing the complaint has no medical training because she does not need any, since the finding is a foregone conclusion.
-An appeals process for Member Services "resolutions" to a nameless committee in either the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles. These committees meet in secret, and the names of the attendees are never divulged to patients or their medical representatives. Again, a case worker without medical training is in charge of the paperwork, and, again, the result is a foregone conclusion. (CalPERS could well paper their offices with the stacks of denials resulting from these secret meetings.)
-RISK MANAGEMENT units: These groups are composed primarily of attorneys who are organized for one purpose only. That is, to reduce the risk to Kaiser Permanente from any patient who has been abused or abandoned. In Northern California, one may find this unit at Kaiser Plaza in Oakland. At the local level, a physician is normally assigned to a so-called MedLegal to refer patient "complaints" to RISK MANAGEMENT for burial.
-Ombudsmen: On each Kaiser campus there exists an Ombudsman. These individuals are typically either non-medical personnel or RN's who are very charming, but will tell patients immediately that they have no power to correct problems relative to medical care. Ombudsmen on Kaiser campuses are not respected by medical personnel. At best, an Ombudsman might serve as a traffic cop. However, if a patient has been abandoned, he or she will stay abandoned. If a patient has been referred to RISK MANAGEMENT, he or she will stay referred to RISK MANAGEMENT.
-THE CONTRACT: Kaiser Permanent employees labor under a draconian contract which prevents any physician or nurse who witnesses abuse or abandonment from notifying anyone of the problem. HIPAA rules and regulations having to do with medical information confidentiality are used by Kaiser in the same way as "national security" is sometimes used by the government, that is, to frustrate the ability of witnesses to have their information considered by proper authorities. In such an environment, it is unlikely that CalPERS will ever hear from all but the most persistent patients. (Illness, discomfort and other factors also play into the inability of retirees to be heard by CalPERS.)
Requesting a more aggressive CalPERS relative to Kaiser Permanente is the first purpose of this complaint. The additional purpose of this complaint is to notify CalPERS that its own systems for receiving and taking action relative to medical malfeasance are deficient. A much more immediate and less impersonal system needs to be designed. A five to ten day turnaround time for all complaints is simply inadequate. Routine surprise audits also need to be conducted by CalPERS of all Kaiser Permanente facilities. Further, the rating systems associated with CalPERS relative to Kaiser Permanente are out of date, and serve only to mislead both active and retired personnel into choosing a service that, as it is currently structured, is dollars vs patient oriented. CalPERS actions taken as a result of this NOTICE will be appreciated by all patient advocates, as well as Kaiser employees who are in positions to witness, but not to openly challenge, a system established for other than patient well being. Kaiser Permanente is not a hopeless organization. However, CalPERS, which siphons millions of dollars into Kaiser coffers every year, must be more diligent in making certain that the intentions of CalPERS and the delivery systems hired to fulfill those intentions are congruous.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Jerry Sandusky vows "fight to the death" against boys he abused
Jerry Sandusky's attitude toward his victims is sadly common among human beings. Sandusky sees his victims as abusers because they made accusations against him. He feels they should leave him alone.
This attitude is actually startlingly common. Many people feel no remorse when they are called out for wrongdoing; instead, they attack their victims once again. They hire a lawyer that cares only about winning. Sadly, many insurance companies do this to the people that pay them for health insurance. I'm experiencing this same attitude from Kaiser Permanente. It's especially creepy when your doctor and your insurance company are one and the same, as in Kaiser Permanente. Then you end up with your doctor working to harm your health! At least with fee for service insurers, it isn't your doctor who's denying necessary care.
Vowing 'fight to the death,' Sandusky waives hearing in child sex-abuse case
Sandusky waives hearing, vows to fight charges
By MARK SCOLFORO and MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
Dec. 13, 2011
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky opted against forcing his accusers to make their claims of child sex abuse in a packed courtroom Tuesday but then took his case to the courthouse steps as his lawyer assailed the credibility of the alleged victims and witnesses.
"There will be no plea negotiations," defense lawyer Joseph Amendola said. "This is a fight to the death."
Waiving such a preliminary hearing is not unusual but it was unexpected in this case: Amendola repeatedly had said his client was looking forward to facing his accusers. Afterward, he called the cancellation a "tactical decision" to prevent the men from reiterating the same claims they made to the grand jury.
Lawyers for the alleged victims said some were relieved they would not have to make their claims in public before a trial, but others said they had steeled themselves to face Sandusky and were left disappointed.
"It would have been apparent from watching those boys and their demeanor that they were telling the truth," said Howard Janet, a lawyer for a boy whose mother contacted police in 1998 after her son allegedly showered with Sandusky.
Sandusky has denied the allegations, which led to the departures of longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and the university president. He is charged with more than 50 counts that accuse him of sexually abusing 10 boys over the span of 12 years...
This attitude is actually startlingly common. Many people feel no remorse when they are called out for wrongdoing; instead, they attack their victims once again. They hire a lawyer that cares only about winning. Sadly, many insurance companies do this to the people that pay them for health insurance. I'm experiencing this same attitude from Kaiser Permanente. It's especially creepy when your doctor and your insurance company are one and the same, as in Kaiser Permanente. Then you end up with your doctor working to harm your health! At least with fee for service insurers, it isn't your doctor who's denying necessary care.
Vowing 'fight to the death,' Sandusky waives hearing in child sex-abuse case
Sandusky waives hearing, vows to fight charges
By MARK SCOLFORO and MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
Dec. 13, 2011
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky opted against forcing his accusers to make their claims of child sex abuse in a packed courtroom Tuesday but then took his case to the courthouse steps as his lawyer assailed the credibility of the alleged victims and witnesses.
"There will be no plea negotiations," defense lawyer Joseph Amendola said. "This is a fight to the death."
Waiving such a preliminary hearing is not unusual but it was unexpected in this case: Amendola repeatedly had said his client was looking forward to facing his accusers. Afterward, he called the cancellation a "tactical decision" to prevent the men from reiterating the same claims they made to the grand jury.
Lawyers for the alleged victims said some were relieved they would not have to make their claims in public before a trial, but others said they had steeled themselves to face Sandusky and were left disappointed.
"It would have been apparent from watching those boys and their demeanor that they were telling the truth," said Howard Janet, a lawyer for a boy whose mother contacted police in 1998 after her son allegedly showered with Sandusky.
Sandusky has denied the allegations, which led to the departures of longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and the university president. He is charged with more than 50 counts that accuse him of sexually abusing 10 boys over the span of 12 years...
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Kaiser Permanente's Robert Pearl runs a two-tiered system regarding patient access to test results
Robert Pearl runs a two-tiered system at Kaiser Permanente: some patients get their test results right away, but other patients might never see their test results--and their doctors might not ever see the results, either.
Here's an example of unavailable--and falsified!--X-ray results. Why would Kaiser do this? Perhaps to cover-up mistakes.
One remark of Dr. Pearl is certainly true: he really does work hard to "keep patients out of the hospital." Unfortunately, this sometimes causes the deaths of Kaiser patients.
See Kaiser executives.
Permanente boss warns of two-tiered health system
December 07, 2011
by Brendon Nafziger , DOTmed News Associate Editor
Travelers to South America can access their bank account from any humble ATM in the airport, but patients admitted to the emergency room with chest pain over the weekend often can't get their hands on electrocardiogram readings taken previously at a doctors office until the following Monday, thus raising health care costs.
Dr. Robert Pearl, the outspoken CEO of the Permanente Medical Group, a division of Kaiser Permanente, used this example to show why health care was lagging behind other industries when it comes to using information technology.
"Why do we provide so much less to our patients than banks do?" he asked attendees at the 8th Annual American Health Care Conference in Anaheim, Calif. on Tuesday.
Pearl said implementing the information technology retail and banking sectors take for granted was one of the only hopes to redeem the American medical system before it devolves into a two-tiered system, with one style of health care for the rich and one for everyone else.
"American health care most closely resembles a 19th century cottage industry," he said, adding that it was a fragmented system, mostly paper-based, with little leadership structure.
While the poor today don't have the same level of health care provision in the United States, he thinks it could get much worse. "I'm talking about a system where the middle class gets less and less, higher and higher deductibles, till there's rationing as the solution to the American health care crisis. Once that happens, we'll never go back. Today is the last great hope, I believe, for American medicine," he said.
Video games
Pearl thinks better integrating technology and employing preventive services is the best shot at boosting efficiency and reining in costs. He noted that the Kaiser Permanente system, the country's largest non-profit health plan, has been pioneering ways to help doctors share information and keep patients out of the hospital.
For instance, in a claim Pearl has made before, he said if every American received the same level of preventive services that Kaiser provides, there would be 200,000 fewer heart attacks and strokes. It's an extrapolation from a New England Journal of Medicine article from June 2010 that found the number of heart attacks at Kaiser fell about a quarter from 1999 to 2008, a drop credited in part to preventive strategies, such as giving patients beta-blockers or statins, and coordinated by Kaiser's complete electronic medical record system.
The technologies Pearl envisions to help are not even terribly cutting-edge. He sees a lot of mileage out of video and e-mail .
"I think video will be a major part of how health care is delivered in the future, if we're successful," he said.
For instance, he said in his system teenagers receiving Accutane acne treatments have tele-dermatology conferences so doctors can make sure the treatment is working and the patient isn't getting depressed, a known side effect of the drug. The conference only takes a few minutes, and doesn't require scheduling weeks in advance.
E-mail has similar productivity-boosting benefits. Pearl estimates the average Kaiser patient sends 5-6 secure e-mails to the health system a year. He thinks if this became widespread, it could lead to billions of dollars in savings. Of course, the trouble is figuring out a way doctors can get reimbursed for these services.
But it wont happen, unless we're able to change the structure, change the financing, and put in place leadership structure to make it happen," he said.
[Maura Larkins comment: Kaiser needs a new leadership structure in place to end the practice of cutting corners to make profits. Kaiser should follow basic medical standards for all patients.]
Here's an example of unavailable--and falsified!--X-ray results. Why would Kaiser do this? Perhaps to cover-up mistakes.
One remark of Dr. Pearl is certainly true: he really does work hard to "keep patients out of the hospital." Unfortunately, this sometimes causes the deaths of Kaiser patients.
See Kaiser executives.
Permanente boss warns of two-tiered health system
December 07, 2011
by Brendon Nafziger , DOTmed News Associate Editor
Travelers to South America can access their bank account from any humble ATM in the airport, but patients admitted to the emergency room with chest pain over the weekend often can't get their hands on electrocardiogram readings taken previously at a doctors office until the following Monday, thus raising health care costs.
Dr. Robert Pearl, the outspoken CEO of the Permanente Medical Group, a division of Kaiser Permanente, used this example to show why health care was lagging behind other industries when it comes to using information technology.
"Why do we provide so much less to our patients than banks do?" he asked attendees at the 8th Annual American Health Care Conference in Anaheim, Calif. on Tuesday.
Pearl said implementing the information technology retail and banking sectors take for granted was one of the only hopes to redeem the American medical system before it devolves into a two-tiered system, with one style of health care for the rich and one for everyone else.
"American health care most closely resembles a 19th century cottage industry," he said, adding that it was a fragmented system, mostly paper-based, with little leadership structure.
While the poor today don't have the same level of health care provision in the United States, he thinks it could get much worse. "I'm talking about a system where the middle class gets less and less, higher and higher deductibles, till there's rationing as the solution to the American health care crisis. Once that happens, we'll never go back. Today is the last great hope, I believe, for American medicine," he said.
Video games
Pearl thinks better integrating technology and employing preventive services is the best shot at boosting efficiency and reining in costs. He noted that the Kaiser Permanente system, the country's largest non-profit health plan, has been pioneering ways to help doctors share information and keep patients out of the hospital.
For instance, in a claim Pearl has made before, he said if every American received the same level of preventive services that Kaiser provides, there would be 200,000 fewer heart attacks and strokes. It's an extrapolation from a New England Journal of Medicine article from June 2010 that found the number of heart attacks at Kaiser fell about a quarter from 1999 to 2008, a drop credited in part to preventive strategies, such as giving patients beta-blockers or statins, and coordinated by Kaiser's complete electronic medical record system.
The technologies Pearl envisions to help are not even terribly cutting-edge. He sees a lot of mileage out of video and e-mail .
"I think video will be a major part of how health care is delivered in the future, if we're successful," he said.
For instance, he said in his system teenagers receiving Accutane acne treatments have tele-dermatology conferences so doctors can make sure the treatment is working and the patient isn't getting depressed, a known side effect of the drug. The conference only takes a few minutes, and doesn't require scheduling weeks in advance.
E-mail has similar productivity-boosting benefits. Pearl estimates the average Kaiser patient sends 5-6 secure e-mails to the health system a year. He thinks if this became widespread, it could lead to billions of dollars in savings. Of course, the trouble is figuring out a way doctors can get reimbursed for these services.
But it wont happen, unless we're able to change the structure, change the financing, and put in place leadership structure to make it happen," he said.
[Maura Larkins comment: Kaiser needs a new leadership structure in place to end the practice of cutting corners to make profits. Kaiser should follow basic medical standards for all patients.]
Is there a cover-up of serious errors at Kaiser hospitals?
(< < < Click on image to enlarge.)"Since 2007, hospitals have been required to report any errors from a list of 28 “adverse events” that put patients in immediate jeopardy of injury or death."
But if the hospitals don't report the events, then they don't get penalized!
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports (see story below) that Scripps La Jolla is "among most penalized."
But the numbers just don't add up. Kaiser Medical Center in San Diego has a much higher death rate than Scripps Memorial Hospital, but Scripps receives more penalites. Scripps, the nationally-ranked UCSF in San Francisco and Southwest Healthcare in Riverside have received the most penalties from the California Department of Public Health.
How could this happen? Probably because Kaiser is covering up mistakes by falsifying medical records. Kaiser mental health workers recently reported that they were forced to falsify medical records. It's time for other Kaiser workers to tell the truth, too. Kaiser patients would be safer if Kaiser received appropriate administrative penalties.
I have personal experience that Kaiser Permanente in San Diego has falsified medical records. On July 7, 2011 I was sent home from the Emergency Room on Zion because I insisted that doctors look at my X-rays taken on June 15, 2011. The doctors refused to do so. My doctor said she didn't want to "tie up" her "resources", and ordered me to be sent home.
As I was leaving, a nurse stopped me and asked me to sign a form, but she had her hand covering the text on the form. I asked to see what the form said. It said I was leaving against medical advice! I was quite surprised.
I asked the nurse, "I can stay if I want to?"
She said, "No."
I took the form with me when I left, and I heard the nurse tell another worker, "She took it with her!"
"Get another one," her friend said.
Sure enough, when I later obtained my medical records, I found that the nurse had indeed acquired another form, and she and the doctor both signed it! The doctor also wrote in the record that I had left of my own volition. I have attached the signed form to this post, but I covered up the doctor's and nurse's names because I believe that most Kaiser doctors would have done exactly the same thing. I believe they understand that they must work as a "team" with the "Kaiser family." The doctors increase their profits by not "tying up resources."
When I filed a complaint with Member Services, my complaint simply disappeared. I filed a complaint about the disappearance, and that complaint disappeared, too! Finally Kaiser processed another complaint. The "resolution letter" stated, the "issue you have raised will be addressed." I suspect it was addressed and delivered to the trash.
State fines Scripps Memorial for surgery error
Janet Lavelle
SDUT
Dec. 9, 2011
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla was among 14 California hospitals issued administrative penalties Thursday for errors that caused or could cause serious injury or death to patients, state health officials said.
This is the sixth penalty Scripps Memorial has received since the California Department of Public Health began issuing them in 2007 — more than any other hospital in the county.
Statewide, UC San Francisco Medical Center is the only other hospital to get six penalties, exceeded only by Southwest Healthcare System in Riverside County, which has been hit with seven since 2007, state records show.
Scripps La Jolla was fined $100,000 after a one-inch pin was mistakenly left inside a patient’s neck during spinal surgery in October 2010.
The pin was found and removed in a second surgery more than 12 hours later, after the patient complained of pain, and trouble swallowing and breathing throughout the day. Three X-rays were done that day, but the problem wasn’t identified until the surgeon returned to the hospital late that night and spotted the pin on the last X-ray.
Scripps La Jolla was the only San Diego County hospital cited among the 14 on Thursday.
In a phone interview with reporters, Pam Dickfoss, acting deputy director of the state health department’s Center for Health Care Quality, said the penalties are part of a larger effort to make hospitals safer.
“Our goal is to improve the quality of health care in all California hospitals,” Dickfoss said.
Since 2007, hospitals have been required to report any errors from a list of 28 “adverse events” that put patients in immediate jeopardy of injury or death. So far, 214 penalties have been issued to 123 hospitals with assessed fines of more than $7.8 million, Dickfoss said...
Here's the list of local hospitals that reported errors. Isn't it a bit suspicious that Kaiser hasn't reported a single error, when it has higher death rates than Scripps, UCSD, and Sharp?
Hospital Administrative Penalties for San Diego County
Penalties Issued in 2011
Scripps Memorial HospitalNew Window
9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla, 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policies and procedures. This resulted in a patient having to undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object. The penalty is $100,000.
Palomar Medical CenterNew Window
555 E. Valley Parkway, Escondido, 92025, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not implement its established policies and procedures for the safe distribution and administration of medication. This is the second administrative penalty issued to the hospital. The penalty is $75,000.
Pomerado HospitalNew Window
15615 Pomerado Road, Poway, 92064, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow its policies and procedures for fall prevention. This is the third administrative penalty issued to the hospital. The penalty is $75,000.
Scripps Memorial HospitalNew Window
354 Santa Fe Drive, Encinitas, 92024, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow its surgical policies and procedures. This is the first administrative penalty issued to the hospital. The penalty is $50,000.
Scripps Memorial HospitalNew Window
9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla, 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when a patient was not adequately supervised during a surgical procedure. This is the second administrative penalty issued to the hospital. The penalty is $75,000.
Sharp Memorial HospitalNew Window
7901 Frost Street, San Diego, 92123, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it failed to accurately administer a prescribed medication. The penalty is $25,000.
Penalties Issued in 2010
Palomar Medical Center (PDF)New Window
555 E. Valley Parkway, Escondino, CA 820211, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow its patient care policies and procedures. This is the first administrative penalty issued to this hospital. The penalty is assessed at $50,000. - Administrative penalty issued based on finding during survey completed on 01/25/2010.
Grossmont Hospital (PDF)New Window
5555 Grossmont Center Dr., La Mesa 91942, San Diego County - The hospital staff failed to follow the policies and procedures for surgical and invasive procedures. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed 04/03/2009.
Pomerado Hospital (PDF)New Window
15615 Pomerado Rd., Poway 92064, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its policies and procedures for fall prevention. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed 09/02/2009.
Rady Children’s Hospital (PDF)New Window
3020 Children's Way, San Diego 92123, San Diego County - The hospital failed to implement its established policies and procedures for the safe and effective administration of medication. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed 05/14/2009.
Scripps Green Hospital (PDF)New Window
10666 North Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policies and procedures for equipment cleaning. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during survey completed on 10/15/09.
Scripps Green Hospital (PDF)New Window
10666 North Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policies and procedures. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during survey completed on 05/21/09.
Scripps Mercy Hospital (PDF)New Window
4077 Fifth Ave., San Diego 92103, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policies and procedures. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during survey completed on 07/02/09.
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla (PDF)New Window
9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of its patients when it failed to follow its surgical policies and procedures. This is the fourth administrative penalty issued to this hospital. The penalty is assessed at $50,000. Administrative Penalty issued based on finding during survey completed on 07/24/2009.
Sharp Memorial Hospital (PDF)New Window
7901 Frost St., San Diego 92123, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policy and procedure. This resulted in a patient having to undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed on 04/06/2009.
Tri-City Medical Center (PDF)New Window
4002 Vista Way, Oceanside 92055, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policies and procedures. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during survey completed on 10/15/09.
University of California San Diego Medical Center (PDF)New Window
200 West Arbor Dr., San Diego 92109, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policy and procedure. This resulted in a patient having to undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed on 02/24/2009.
Penalties Issued in 2009
Scripps Mercy Hospital (PDF)New Window
4077 Fifth Avenue, San Diego 92103, San Diego County - Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 09/10/2008.
Scripps Mercy Hospital (PDF)New Window
4077 Fifth Avenue, San Diego 92103, San Diego County - The hospital failed to have a safe, effective and timely system for dispensing and administering medications. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 4/8/2008.
Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center (PDF)New Window
751 Medical Center Ct., Chula Vista 91911, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its surgical policy and procedure. This resulted in a patient having to undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed on 01/22/2009.
Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital
7850 Vista Hill Avenue, San Diego 92123, San Diego County - Administrative penalty issued based on findings during survey completed on 12/02/2008. Information specific to the incident resulting in the issuance of this Administrative Penalty can not be released pursuant to Section 5328.15 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
Tri-City Medical Center (PDF)New Window
4002 Vista Way, Oceanside 92056, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when the hospital did not follow its policies and procedures for fall prevention. Administrative penalty issued based on findings during a survey completed on 03/03/2009.
University of California San Diego Medical Center (PDF)New Window
200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego 92103-8976, San Diego County - Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed 11/26/2008.
Penalties Issued in 2008
Grossmont Hospital (PDF)New Window
5555 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa 91942, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when they failed to activate a stationary ventilator during a transfer of the patient from a transport ventilator resulting in the patient’s death. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 4/4/2008.
Palomar Pomerado Health System (PDF)New Window
15615 Pomerado Road, Poway 92064, San Diego County - The hospital failed to maintain its anesthesia equipment in proper functioning order. As a result three patients experienced surgical awareness during surgical procedures. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 4/3/2008.
Promise Hospital of San Diego (PDF)New Window
5550 University Avenue, San Diego 92105, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of its patients by allowing an unlicensed staff person to function as a licensed nurse. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 5/15/2008.
Scripps Green Hospital (PDF)New Window
10666 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to ensure the patient safety in the surgical department when a patient fell off an operating table during surgery. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 4/8/2008.
Scripps Green Hospital (PDF)New Window
10666 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to implement policies and procedures to provide for effective surgical service infection control. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 11/27/2007.
Scripps Memorial Hospital (PDF)New Window
9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to implement policies and procedures related to the safe and accurate use of medications in emergent situations. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed 11/27/2007.
Scripps Memorial Hospital (PDF)New Window
9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to develop and implement policies a procedures to protect patient safety related to the use of controlled substances. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed 11/27/2007.
Scripps Memorial Hospital (PDF)New Window
9888 Genesee Avenue, La Jolla 92037, San Diego County - The hospital failed to protect a patient's right to considerate and respectful care. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 8/30/2007.
University of California, San Diego Medical Center (PDF)New Window
200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego 92103-8976, San Diego County - The hospital failed to develop and implement policies and procedures to protect patient safety by failing to ensure the safe administration of medications. Administrative penalty issued based on finding during a survey completed on 9/18/2007.
New Study Finds California Pacific Medical Center (San Francisco) Profits Not Matched by Charity Care
CPMC (California Pacific Medical Center) spent about four times LESS on charity care than St. Francis Memorial Hospital, which is about one-third of CPMC's size.
California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of December 9, 2011
California Healthline
December 09, 2011
California Pacific Medical Center [San Francisco] spends significantly less on care for low-income residents than other private not-for-profit hospitals in San Francisco, according to a report by UC Hastings College of the Law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
For example, the report found that CPMC spent about four times less on charity care than St. Francis Memorial Hospital, which is about one-third of CPMC's size.
CPMC and its St. Luke's campus had an average annual net income of about $149 million between 2006 and 2010, nearly 12 times the combined annual profit of the other facilities, according to the report.
CPMC spokesperson Kevin McCormack said that last year, the hospital provided more than $15.3 million in charity care -- nearly threefold what it spent in 2007.
According to McCormack, the report is biased because it was prepared at the request of community organizations that have criticized the hospital (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/9).
New Study Finds CPMC Profits Not Matched by Charity Care
by Jonathan Nathan
Beyond Chron
Dec. 09‚ 2011
Members of the Community Economic Development Clinic of the University of Hastings College of the Law released a study on the profitability and charitable care efforts of San Francisco's nonprofit private hospitals on Thursday in a press conference, with representatives of various community organizations on hand to discuss the implications of the study and, specifically, the potential impacts of the proposed rebuild of Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC).
The study detailed the financial capacity and performance of the major nonprofit hospitals in San Francisco, as well as their various levels of compliance with municipal guidelines on charitable care, based on a review of data gathered by the Department of Public Health, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the IRS, and publicly available documents.
The study concluded that CPMC, comprised of four campuses around San Francisco, has a significantly greater financial capacity than any of the other private nonprofit hospitals in the city, but spends a disproportionately lower amount on charitable care, Medi-Cal patient care, and Healthy San Francisco patient care. Medi-Cal and Healthy San Francisco are, respectively, the statewide and citywide programs for low- and middle-income consumers in the city. The St. Luke's campus, for example, is Sutter Health's most profitable hospital in California, and has accounted for over a quarter of Sutter's total profits over the last five years. St. Luke's had a net income of $743.9 million between 2006 and 2010 for an average annual profit of $149 million, roughly 12 times the average of all other area nonprofit hospitals combined. Yet the ratio of charitable care to net patient revenue at St. Luke's was lower than that at St. Francis, a hospital which had a net profit in the negatives over the past five years, and CPMC as a whole performed worse as a charitable institution than any other in the city, nearly five percentage points lower than the 6% guideline laid out by the Board of Supervisors.
Further, the study presents evidence that the chasm between CPMC's charitable performance and that of other area nonprofit hospitals would only worsen if CPMC's current rebuild plan were put into action, as the rebuild proposes cutting the number of beds at the St. Luke's campus, in the Mission, from over 200 beds to 80. As the St. Luke's campus is by far the best-performing of CPMC's hospital locations in terms of charitable care, the implications for CPMC's ability to fulfill its obligations to the community, as set forth by the Board of Supervisors, are dire. While CPMC spent nearly 4% of its revenue on charitable care, the other three campuses in the system spent less than 1%. With CPMC, the city's largest provider of Medi-Cal health care by far, currently slated to cut its capacity by more than two thirds, there is a clear threat to publicly funded health care for low- and middle-income consumers, and several of the assembled speakers at the press conference warned that the move would cause overcrowding at all of San Francisco's hospitals, particularly San Francisco General.
Emily Jie-Ming Lee, Lead Organizer for the Chinese Progressive Association, discussed the CPMC situation by framing it in terms of the Occupy movement, and called attention to the fact that health care is now the prime barrier to a middle-class lifestyle. She briefly spoke of one woman who had to remortgage her home to pay for cancer treatments, and eventually had to default and lost her home. Lee noted that City residents rely on public insurance in greater numbers than the national average, a trend which only increase as federal health care reform measures take hold in the coming years. Lee called on CPMC to increase its share of charitable care in the City, and to equalize the burden among its campuses. With St. Luke's seeing four times more charitable care cases than the other three campuses combined, “it does not speak well to equal access to care,” Lee said.
Paul Kumar, a spokesperson for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, called out CPMC for double-charging San Francisco taxpayers, in the sense that the system reaps the benefits of municipal tax relief while forcing customers to pay more out-of-pocket for services. Kumar made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that CPMC's refusal “to do anything like its appropriate share of charity care” has the same effect on everyday taxpayer's pocketbooks as would an actual tax increase, due to the stress it places on City finances. Given that CPMC is part of one of the most profitable health care systems in the state, Kumar argued, “claims of financial incapacity are laughable. If other hospitals, making far less money than CPMC, are able to do their share of charity care, why is it so unsustainable for CPMC?”
The various speakers made it clear that they were not against CPMC's rebuild proposals in principle, but that they wanted to make sure that whatever steps were taken would keep workforce development, local communities, low-income consumers, affordable housing, and charitable care as priorities. Said Lee, “We want to see this project built and we want a good project.”
California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of December 9, 2011
California Healthline
December 09, 2011
California Pacific Medical Center [San Francisco] spends significantly less on care for low-income residents than other private not-for-profit hospitals in San Francisco, according to a report by UC Hastings College of the Law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
For example, the report found that CPMC spent about four times less on charity care than St. Francis Memorial Hospital, which is about one-third of CPMC's size.
CPMC and its St. Luke's campus had an average annual net income of about $149 million between 2006 and 2010, nearly 12 times the combined annual profit of the other facilities, according to the report.
CPMC spokesperson Kevin McCormack said that last year, the hospital provided more than $15.3 million in charity care -- nearly threefold what it spent in 2007.
According to McCormack, the report is biased because it was prepared at the request of community organizations that have criticized the hospital (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/9).
New Study Finds CPMC Profits Not Matched by Charity Care
by Jonathan Nathan
Beyond Chron
Dec. 09‚ 2011
Members of the Community Economic Development Clinic of the University of Hastings College of the Law released a study on the profitability and charitable care efforts of San Francisco's nonprofit private hospitals on Thursday in a press conference, with representatives of various community organizations on hand to discuss the implications of the study and, specifically, the potential impacts of the proposed rebuild of Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC).
The study detailed the financial capacity and performance of the major nonprofit hospitals in San Francisco, as well as their various levels of compliance with municipal guidelines on charitable care, based on a review of data gathered by the Department of Public Health, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the IRS, and publicly available documents.
The study concluded that CPMC, comprised of four campuses around San Francisco, has a significantly greater financial capacity than any of the other private nonprofit hospitals in the city, but spends a disproportionately lower amount on charitable care, Medi-Cal patient care, and Healthy San Francisco patient care. Medi-Cal and Healthy San Francisco are, respectively, the statewide and citywide programs for low- and middle-income consumers in the city. The St. Luke's campus, for example, is Sutter Health's most profitable hospital in California, and has accounted for over a quarter of Sutter's total profits over the last five years. St. Luke's had a net income of $743.9 million between 2006 and 2010 for an average annual profit of $149 million, roughly 12 times the average of all other area nonprofit hospitals combined. Yet the ratio of charitable care to net patient revenue at St. Luke's was lower than that at St. Francis, a hospital which had a net profit in the negatives over the past five years, and CPMC as a whole performed worse as a charitable institution than any other in the city, nearly five percentage points lower than the 6% guideline laid out by the Board of Supervisors.
Further, the study presents evidence that the chasm between CPMC's charitable performance and that of other area nonprofit hospitals would only worsen if CPMC's current rebuild plan were put into action, as the rebuild proposes cutting the number of beds at the St. Luke's campus, in the Mission, from over 200 beds to 80. As the St. Luke's campus is by far the best-performing of CPMC's hospital locations in terms of charitable care, the implications for CPMC's ability to fulfill its obligations to the community, as set forth by the Board of Supervisors, are dire. While CPMC spent nearly 4% of its revenue on charitable care, the other three campuses in the system spent less than 1%. With CPMC, the city's largest provider of Medi-Cal health care by far, currently slated to cut its capacity by more than two thirds, there is a clear threat to publicly funded health care for low- and middle-income consumers, and several of the assembled speakers at the press conference warned that the move would cause overcrowding at all of San Francisco's hospitals, particularly San Francisco General.
Emily Jie-Ming Lee, Lead Organizer for the Chinese Progressive Association, discussed the CPMC situation by framing it in terms of the Occupy movement, and called attention to the fact that health care is now the prime barrier to a middle-class lifestyle. She briefly spoke of one woman who had to remortgage her home to pay for cancer treatments, and eventually had to default and lost her home. Lee noted that City residents rely on public insurance in greater numbers than the national average, a trend which only increase as federal health care reform measures take hold in the coming years. Lee called on CPMC to increase its share of charitable care in the City, and to equalize the burden among its campuses. With St. Luke's seeing four times more charitable care cases than the other three campuses combined, “it does not speak well to equal access to care,” Lee said.
Paul Kumar, a spokesperson for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, called out CPMC for double-charging San Francisco taxpayers, in the sense that the system reaps the benefits of municipal tax relief while forcing customers to pay more out-of-pocket for services. Kumar made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that CPMC's refusal “to do anything like its appropriate share of charity care” has the same effect on everyday taxpayer's pocketbooks as would an actual tax increase, due to the stress it places on City finances. Given that CPMC is part of one of the most profitable health care systems in the state, Kumar argued, “claims of financial incapacity are laughable. If other hospitals, making far less money than CPMC, are able to do their share of charity care, why is it so unsustainable for CPMC?”
The various speakers made it clear that they were not against CPMC's rebuild proposals in principle, but that they wanted to make sure that whatever steps were taken would keep workforce development, local communities, low-income consumers, affordable housing, and charitable care as priorities. Said Lee, “We want to see this project built and we want a good project.”
Friday, December 9, 2011
NLRB Judge Throws Out Kaiser Elections
NLRB Judge Throws Out Kaiser Elections
New Vote for 43,000 California Workers
by Cal Winslow
Jul. 20‚ 2011
Beyond Chron
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just thrown out the results of the September/October 2010 representation election at Kaiser Permanente, the huge California based Health Maintenance Organization. The ruling, by an administrative law judge, has handed California healthcare workers a stunning victory. In that election, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) defeated the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), the new union challenging SEIU in the healthcare industry. The 2010 election – involving 43,000 Kaiser service and tech workers - was marred by a SEIU campaign of lies, fear and intimidation. The election itself was estimated to have cost SEIU between $20 and $40 million dollars – more than $500 per vote.
NUHW appealed, charging SEIU and Kaiser with a host of unfair labor practices, above all with collusion in denying service and technical workers a free and fair choice election, relying, crucially, on Kaiser’s illegal decision in 2010 to withhold scheduled wage increases for new southern California NUHW members.
In her July 18, 2011 decision, Washington DC Judge Lana H. Parke ruled that SEIU had indeed “interfered with unit employee’s free and uncoerced choice in the election.” Underscoring the significance of her ruling, Judge Parke explained, “The Board does not lightly set aside representational elections…There is a strong presumption that ballots cast under specific NLRB procedural safeguards reflect the true desires of the employees.” She then ordered a new election so that workers will have “the right to cast their ballots as they see fit…in the exercise of this right free from interference…”
The vote, taken in September/October 2010 was the largest union election in the US in the last seven decades.
NUHW spokesman Leighton Akio Woodhouse hailed the decision as a “total victory for our members – SEIU’s whole campaign was dependent on Kaiser’s violation of the law.”
In early 2010, NUHW Southern California nurses and professionals successfully challenged SEIU in NLRB administered elections. Kaiser responded by unilaterally denying these workers scheduled contractual wage increases, increases guaranteed, according to labor law, even when a union is replaced by another
Judge Parke’s ruling drew attention to the conduct of Kaiser Permanente Regional President Ben Chu who reinforced SEIU’s illegal threats during a large employee town hall forum prior to the election. SEIU “was joined in its warnings by Kaiser’s President [Ben] Chu, who informed employees that only members of coalition unions were guaranteed PSP incentive bonuses. “
The ruling focuses on SEIU. The withholding of wages, subsequently found by the NLRB to be illegal (back wages increase were ordered to be paid) gave SEIU a key opening for a barrage of misinformation.
Here’s just one example from a SEIU campaign leaflet: “After Southern California RNs and pros voted to join NUHW, here’s what happened: They lost their 2% raise in April. That means a loss of more than $1600 a year for some pros and RNs… They are no longer eligible for up to $2000 a year in tuition reimbursement…” Parke noted “30 disseminations of this statement in as many facilities.” It was just one of many. It was a lie.
“We won,” says Jonathan Siegel, the Oakland lawyer who led NUHW’s appeal. “I don’t want to quibble, she didn’t go far enough.”
Siegel believes Parke erred in not finding Kaiser also at fault. “It is clear that Kaiser and SEIU worked together to have raises come due precisely at election time, while arguing a NUHW victory would negate them.”
“But we won, they lost! SEIU will no doubt appeal, that will take 6 to 12 months, we may cross-appeal, but I’m certain the ruling will stand, so we’re looking for a new election in 2012.”
This California conflict remains, I’ll argue, the most important issue in US labor today, not as spectacular as the February days in Madison, to be sure, but ongoing and stark in its implications –can workers stand up to corporate power? With unions? What kind?
The California healthcare union dispute stems from the 2009 trusteeship of SEIU’s California local, the 150,000 strong United Healthcare Workers- West (UHW), then a militant, progressive union, now a shambles.
The California healthcare workers took issue with SEIU’s corporate structures and strategies, above all its back-door wheeling and dealing with healthcare corporations and corrupt politicians – policies aimed at increasing members (read dues payers) at any cost, most often at the expense of the rights and standards of its own members, healthcare workers.
They objected as SEIU spent lavishly on politicians (Blagojevich in Illinois) signed ten year contracts (in Washington State) gave up the right to strike (in California nursing homes), abandoned organizing drives (in Santa Rosa), sabotaged healthcare reform (with Arnold Schwarzenegger), ignored staggering intern corruption (LA local 6434) – all with the justification that cultivating friendly employers and politicians was the road to grow and influence. They are still doing it.
Today the healthcare corporations - profit and not-for profit alike - are as voracious as any. There is no recession for them. Kaiser reported a net income of $921 million for the first quarter of 2011, with reserves of more than $12 billion. Still, last month it announced it would raise premiums for more than 300,000 Californians. Kaiser officials claimed this would amount a 10.7 increase, but consumer groups predicted increases of up to 17% for some subscribers.
At the same time, George Halvorson, the CEO for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals received compensation of $6.7 million.
“What is their justification for causing economic hardship on 300,000 people?” asks Woodhouse. “They’re doing incredibly well financially (and) sitting on huge reserves.”
Still Kaiser wants concessions and SEIU is handing them out. Worse, while the nation’s second-largest union announces one sham national political campaign after another, it has virtually abandoned its UHW members. Roy Chaffee, a call center clerk at Kaiser’s Vallejo call center, reports that “SEIU has withdrawn staff, they’re not visible, we have to fend for ourselves, with Kaiser taking full advantage – the changes have been unprecedented and all detrimental.”
Angela Glasper, Kaiser Antioch, fired executive board member of pre-trusteeship UHW, says, “We have not seen them /SEIU/… we get no representation at all. And we have people getting fired, some with 20 years on the job. It’s a big thing.”
And NUHW? According to NUHW’s John Borsos, “We are already working for the new election – but we’re mostly doing what unions are supposed to do, fighting back against employers demanding concessions, fighting for better standards for our members. And organizing. I have to say -in contrast with far too many unions today – we’re not rolling over in the face of employer demands for concessions. We’re in the middle of contract negotiations for several thousand healthcare workers.”
And it’s not just about talk. On May 18, 2011, 2500 NUHW members struck Kaiser in Southern California: 1100 nurses and 100 professional (social workers, therapists, dieticians, medical technicians) and picketed Kaiser’s Los Angeles medical Center in Hollywood, rejecting concessions and demanding a decent contract in a powerful display of solidarity.
On June 21 In Salinas, 850 NUHW members struck the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. The day- long strike, the first ever in the hospital’s 58-year history was in response to stalled negotiations with hospital management workers. NUHW is fighting plans to cut more than 100 direct-care positions and trim pension and healthcare benefits for new hires.
It is important to note that in each strike, SEIU sent multiple mailers to the workers involved, urging them to cross picket lines.
At the same time, NUHW is joining with other workers, community and consumer groups to expose corporate greed. At Salinas Valley NUHW members revealed the fact that Samuel Downing, outgoing chief executive, was granted a retirement package that included $5 million in supplemental payments plus a $150,000 annual benefit.
These struggles are critical. NUHW is rebuilding at a time when the situation of workers is increasingly desperate; they come at a time when it ought to be self-evident that concessions don’t work; they come at a time when the political class, here in California, across the nation, internationally, is singing just one song: austerity!
There is, however, an alternative. The NLRB ruling on the Kaiser election will strengthen it. “It was a shot of hope,” reports Glasper. “ People are smiling today, we’re rejuvenated. We still are the union. They tell us we our voices don’t count. We remember, they do.”
“This ruling is a tremendous vindication for us,” says Chafee. “It is a vindication for thousands of honest healthcare workers, the victims of the SEIU – we are excited and hopeful, we can still regain our union, we can restore our economic security, we can regain our voice and do the job we want to do – take care of and defend the rights of our patients.”
Cal Winslow has written extensively on the subject of the SEIU and NUHW. He is the author of Labor’s Civil War in California, PM Press and an editor of Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt From Below during the Long Seventies (Verso, 2010). He is a Fellow at UC Berkeley, Director of the Mendocino Institute and associated with the Bay Area collective, Retort. He can be reached at cwinslow@berkeley.edu
New Vote for 43,000 California Workers
by Cal Winslow
Jul. 20‚ 2011
Beyond Chron
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just thrown out the results of the September/October 2010 representation election at Kaiser Permanente, the huge California based Health Maintenance Organization. The ruling, by an administrative law judge, has handed California healthcare workers a stunning victory. In that election, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) defeated the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), the new union challenging SEIU in the healthcare industry. The 2010 election – involving 43,000 Kaiser service and tech workers - was marred by a SEIU campaign of lies, fear and intimidation. The election itself was estimated to have cost SEIU between $20 and $40 million dollars – more than $500 per vote.
NUHW appealed, charging SEIU and Kaiser with a host of unfair labor practices, above all with collusion in denying service and technical workers a free and fair choice election, relying, crucially, on Kaiser’s illegal decision in 2010 to withhold scheduled wage increases for new southern California NUHW members.
In her July 18, 2011 decision, Washington DC Judge Lana H. Parke ruled that SEIU had indeed “interfered with unit employee’s free and uncoerced choice in the election.” Underscoring the significance of her ruling, Judge Parke explained, “The Board does not lightly set aside representational elections…There is a strong presumption that ballots cast under specific NLRB procedural safeguards reflect the true desires of the employees.” She then ordered a new election so that workers will have “the right to cast their ballots as they see fit…in the exercise of this right free from interference…”
The vote, taken in September/October 2010 was the largest union election in the US in the last seven decades.
NUHW spokesman Leighton Akio Woodhouse hailed the decision as a “total victory for our members – SEIU’s whole campaign was dependent on Kaiser’s violation of the law.”
In early 2010, NUHW Southern California nurses and professionals successfully challenged SEIU in NLRB administered elections. Kaiser responded by unilaterally denying these workers scheduled contractual wage increases, increases guaranteed, according to labor law, even when a union is replaced by another
Judge Parke’s ruling drew attention to the conduct of Kaiser Permanente Regional President Ben Chu who reinforced SEIU’s illegal threats during a large employee town hall forum prior to the election. SEIU “was joined in its warnings by Kaiser’s President [Ben] Chu, who informed employees that only members of coalition unions were guaranteed PSP incentive bonuses. “
The ruling focuses on SEIU. The withholding of wages, subsequently found by the NLRB to be illegal (back wages increase were ordered to be paid) gave SEIU a key opening for a barrage of misinformation.
Here’s just one example from a SEIU campaign leaflet: “After Southern California RNs and pros voted to join NUHW, here’s what happened: They lost their 2% raise in April. That means a loss of more than $1600 a year for some pros and RNs… They are no longer eligible for up to $2000 a year in tuition reimbursement…” Parke noted “30 disseminations of this statement in as many facilities.” It was just one of many. It was a lie.
“We won,” says Jonathan Siegel, the Oakland lawyer who led NUHW’s appeal. “I don’t want to quibble, she didn’t go far enough.”
Siegel believes Parke erred in not finding Kaiser also at fault. “It is clear that Kaiser and SEIU worked together to have raises come due precisely at election time, while arguing a NUHW victory would negate them.”
“But we won, they lost! SEIU will no doubt appeal, that will take 6 to 12 months, we may cross-appeal, but I’m certain the ruling will stand, so we’re looking for a new election in 2012.”
This California conflict remains, I’ll argue, the most important issue in US labor today, not as spectacular as the February days in Madison, to be sure, but ongoing and stark in its implications –can workers stand up to corporate power? With unions? What kind?
The California healthcare union dispute stems from the 2009 trusteeship of SEIU’s California local, the 150,000 strong United Healthcare Workers- West (UHW), then a militant, progressive union, now a shambles.
The California healthcare workers took issue with SEIU’s corporate structures and strategies, above all its back-door wheeling and dealing with healthcare corporations and corrupt politicians – policies aimed at increasing members (read dues payers) at any cost, most often at the expense of the rights and standards of its own members, healthcare workers.
They objected as SEIU spent lavishly on politicians (Blagojevich in Illinois) signed ten year contracts (in Washington State) gave up the right to strike (in California nursing homes), abandoned organizing drives (in Santa Rosa), sabotaged healthcare reform (with Arnold Schwarzenegger), ignored staggering intern corruption (LA local 6434) – all with the justification that cultivating friendly employers and politicians was the road to grow and influence. They are still doing it.
Today the healthcare corporations - profit and not-for profit alike - are as voracious as any. There is no recession for them. Kaiser reported a net income of $921 million for the first quarter of 2011, with reserves of more than $12 billion. Still, last month it announced it would raise premiums for more than 300,000 Californians. Kaiser officials claimed this would amount a 10.7 increase, but consumer groups predicted increases of up to 17% for some subscribers.
At the same time, George Halvorson, the CEO for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals received compensation of $6.7 million.
“What is their justification for causing economic hardship on 300,000 people?” asks Woodhouse. “They’re doing incredibly well financially (and) sitting on huge reserves.”
Still Kaiser wants concessions and SEIU is handing them out. Worse, while the nation’s second-largest union announces one sham national political campaign after another, it has virtually abandoned its UHW members. Roy Chaffee, a call center clerk at Kaiser’s Vallejo call center, reports that “SEIU has withdrawn staff, they’re not visible, we have to fend for ourselves, with Kaiser taking full advantage – the changes have been unprecedented and all detrimental.”
Angela Glasper, Kaiser Antioch, fired executive board member of pre-trusteeship UHW, says, “We have not seen them /SEIU/… we get no representation at all. And we have people getting fired, some with 20 years on the job. It’s a big thing.”
And NUHW? According to NUHW’s John Borsos, “We are already working for the new election – but we’re mostly doing what unions are supposed to do, fighting back against employers demanding concessions, fighting for better standards for our members. And organizing. I have to say -in contrast with far too many unions today – we’re not rolling over in the face of employer demands for concessions. We’re in the middle of contract negotiations for several thousand healthcare workers.”
And it’s not just about talk. On May 18, 2011, 2500 NUHW members struck Kaiser in Southern California: 1100 nurses and 100 professional (social workers, therapists, dieticians, medical technicians) and picketed Kaiser’s Los Angeles medical Center in Hollywood, rejecting concessions and demanding a decent contract in a powerful display of solidarity.
On June 21 In Salinas, 850 NUHW members struck the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. The day- long strike, the first ever in the hospital’s 58-year history was in response to stalled negotiations with hospital management workers. NUHW is fighting plans to cut more than 100 direct-care positions and trim pension and healthcare benefits for new hires.
It is important to note that in each strike, SEIU sent multiple mailers to the workers involved, urging them to cross picket lines.
At the same time, NUHW is joining with other workers, community and consumer groups to expose corporate greed. At Salinas Valley NUHW members revealed the fact that Samuel Downing, outgoing chief executive, was granted a retirement package that included $5 million in supplemental payments plus a $150,000 annual benefit.
These struggles are critical. NUHW is rebuilding at a time when the situation of workers is increasingly desperate; they come at a time when it ought to be self-evident that concessions don’t work; they come at a time when the political class, here in California, across the nation, internationally, is singing just one song: austerity!
There is, however, an alternative. The NLRB ruling on the Kaiser election will strengthen it. “It was a shot of hope,” reports Glasper. “ People are smiling today, we’re rejuvenated. We still are the union. They tell us we our voices don’t count. We remember, they do.”
“This ruling is a tremendous vindication for us,” says Chafee. “It is a vindication for thousands of honest healthcare workers, the victims of the SEIU – we are excited and hopeful, we can still regain our union, we can restore our economic security, we can regain our voice and do the job we want to do – take care of and defend the rights of our patients.”
Cal Winslow has written extensively on the subject of the SEIU and NUHW. He is the author of Labor’s Civil War in California, PM Press and an editor of Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt From Below during the Long Seventies (Verso, 2010). He is a Fellow at UC Berkeley, Director of the Mendocino Institute and associated with the Bay Area collective, Retort. He can be reached at cwinslow@berkeley.edu
SEIU-UHW Field Rep Lisa Cox Shows True Colors by Teaming Up with Kaiser Permanente... Permanently
SEIU-UHW Field Rep Lisa Cox Shows True Colors by Teaming Up with Kaiser Permanente... Permanently
Stern Burger with Fries
November 21, 2011
Ever wonder how deep the collusion is between SEIU and Kaiser Permanente? Well, would it surprise you that SEIU’s Field Reps are taking jobs as Kaiser supervisors… and are now responsible for disciplining SEIU-UHW’s own members?
That’s exactly what happened at Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center, where workers report that SEIU Field Rep Lisa Cox just became a manager of the hospital’s Environmental Services Department.
Cox is the SEIU-UHW Field Rep who recently teamed up with management to threaten and bully SEIU-UHW’s own members in advance of the giant strike on September 22. Here’s what one worker wrote about Cox:
After talking with co-workers about the strike during a break, I was called into my director's office and was told to stop telling people they have the right to honor NUHW's picket line. She and her managers were telling employees that if they respected the picket line, they’d be considered a "no-show" and would be disciplined. At that point, Lisa Cox (the SEIU Rep) came into her office and told me, in front of my director, that SEIU did not support the strike and would support management's decision to discipline. My manager then said if I was "caught" talking about the strike, she would suspend me.
And it gets worse.
As the Field Rep, Cox was responsible for all of the hospital workers’ grievances and knew all of the intimate details about each worker’s case. By flipping to management, Cox is committing the highly unethical act of basically handing all these confidential details to management so they can screw workers.
Sounds par for the course for SEIU. After all, what can you really expect from Field Reps who're trained by SEIU officials to systematically bully and deceive the union's own members... like they did during last year's Kaiser election and so many others.
Posted by SternBurger
Stern Burger with Fries
November 21, 2011
Ever wonder how deep the collusion is between SEIU and Kaiser Permanente? Well, would it surprise you that SEIU’s Field Reps are taking jobs as Kaiser supervisors… and are now responsible for disciplining SEIU-UHW’s own members?
That’s exactly what happened at Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center, where workers report that SEIU Field Rep Lisa Cox just became a manager of the hospital’s Environmental Services Department.
Cox is the SEIU-UHW Field Rep who recently teamed up with management to threaten and bully SEIU-UHW’s own members in advance of the giant strike on September 22. Here’s what one worker wrote about Cox:
After talking with co-workers about the strike during a break, I was called into my director's office and was told to stop telling people they have the right to honor NUHW's picket line. She and her managers were telling employees that if they respected the picket line, they’d be considered a "no-show" and would be disciplined. At that point, Lisa Cox (the SEIU Rep) came into her office and told me, in front of my director, that SEIU did not support the strike and would support management's decision to discipline. My manager then said if I was "caught" talking about the strike, she would suspend me.
And it gets worse.
As the Field Rep, Cox was responsible for all of the hospital workers’ grievances and knew all of the intimate details about each worker’s case. By flipping to management, Cox is committing the highly unethical act of basically handing all these confidential details to management so they can screw workers.
Sounds par for the course for SEIU. After all, what can you really expect from Field Reps who're trained by SEIU officials to systematically bully and deceive the union's own members... like they did during last year's Kaiser election and so many others.
Posted by SternBurger
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Kaiser Permanente violated the law to help a public agency that buys employee health coverage; did it a nice return on the investment?
In fact, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Diego has lower survival rates than other hospitals in San Diego which did not get recognition from Leapfrog Group. Why would this be? Is it possible that Leapgfrog Group is looking to save money on health insurance for employees, not to ensure the survival of their employees?
Recently I sent a letter to Jeffrey Weisz, executive medical director of Southern California Permanente Medical Group, telling him that certain Kaiser doctors had inappropriate links with public agencies that buy employee health coverage. I can prove that Kaiser violated the law to help an employer who was being sued by a Kaiser patient. I told Dr. Weisz I'd hand over documentation if the San Diego head of SCPMG, James Malone, would meet with me. I received no response.
So I'm not surprised that "public agencies that buy employee health coverage" would vote for Kaiser. They are getting more from Kaiser than is readily apparent.
"A consortium of large corporations and public agencies that buy employee health coverage, The Leapfrog Group rates hospitals and publishes the annual list in its effort to encourage hospitals to improve safety, quality and affordability."
UCSD, Kaiser San Diego named national Top Hospitals
Janet Lavelle
SDUT
Dec. 6, 2011
UCSD Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center were among 65 hospitals nationwide and the only ones in the county to be named a 2011 “Top Hospital” by the influential Leapfrog Group on Tuesday.
A consortium of large corporations and public agencies that buy employee health coverage, The Leapfrog Group rates hospitals and publishes the annual list in its effort to encourage hospitals to improve safety, quality and affordability.
Nearly 1,200 hospitals voluntarily submitted performance data and participated in Leapfrog’s annual survey, which uses nationally standardized measures so consumers can compare hospitals nationwide.
The survey focused on three areas: patient outcomes, resources used to care for patients, and management practices promoting safety and quality, according to Leapfrog. The organization looked at what hospitals do to prevent medical errors, reduce deaths in high-risk procedures like heart bypass surgery, and reduce hospital readmissions for conditions such as pneumonia and heart attack.
Locally, Alvarado, Paradise Valley and Pomerado hospitals did not participate. Among the 65 award winners nationwide, 21 were in California and 18 of those were Kaiser Permanente hospitals. For more information and to view The Leapfrog Group hospital ratings, visit www.leapfroggroup.org.
Other organizations also provide data for consumers to compare hospital safety and quality.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a nationwide "Hospital Compare" ratings website.
The nonprofit California HealthCare Foundation provides a "Cal Hospital Compare" ratings website just for California hospitals.
[Maura Larkins comment: Warning! The "Cal Hospital Compare" site only looks at how the hospital treats you, not how your doctor treats you. If the doctors are giving poor diagnosis and treatment, you won't see that reflected in this site. You'll only find out about infections and accidents in the hospital. The truth is that Kaiser is rated far lower than UCSD and many other San Diego hospitals as far as overall survival for patients. It is bizarre that Kaiser is given a position alongside UCSD by Leapfrog Group. The motive of Leapfrog Group does not seem to be to ensure the best healthcare for employees. Still don't believe that Kaiser is getting special handling from Leapfrog Group? Look at the list below.]
The Leapfrog Group’s Top Performing Hospitals of 2011
By Khoffman
healthcareerweb.com
December 6, 2011
Leapfrog Group Best Hospitals 2011
Its the end of 2011, which means that the best of 2011 list are coming out. The Leapfrog Group continued their eleven year tradition and have recognized 65 top performing hospitals of 2011.
“The Leapfrog Group survey focuses on three critical areas: (1) how patients fare, (2) resources used to care for patients, and (3) management practices that promote safety and quality. In each of the three areas, Leapfrog asks hospitals to report on nationally standardized measures so healthcare consumers can compare hospitals in their community and across the country.”
Leapfrog Group’s full list of the top performing hospitals of 2011:
2011 Leapfrog Top Hospitals
Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Richmond Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center (CA)
Mills-Peninsula Health Services (CA)
Stanford Hospital and Clinics (CA)
UC San Diego Health System, Hillcrest (CA)
Baptist Health South Florida Homestead Hospital (FL)
NorthShore University HealthSystem-Evanston Hospital (IL)
NorthShore University HealthSystem-Glenbrook Hospital (IL)
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (IL)
Rush University Medical Center (IL)
Baystate Medical Center (MA)
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (MA)
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (MA)
Anne Arundel Medical Center (MD)
University of Maryland Medical Center (MD)
Detroit Receiving Hospital/University Health Center (MI)
Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital (MI)
Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital (MI)
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (MI)
University of Michigan Health System (MI)
Regions Hospital (MN)
St. Mary’s Hospital of Rochester (MN)
University of North Carolina Hospitals (NC)
Hackensack University Medical Center (NJ)
The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood(NJ)
Presbyterian Hospital (NM)
Montefiore Medical Center, Weiler Division (NY)
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (NY)
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OH)
The Christ Hospital of Cincinnati (OH)
University Hospitals Case Medical Center (OH)
Lehigh Valley Hospital (PA)
Bon Secours St. Francis Health System – Downtown (SC)
Vanderbilt University Hospital (TN)
Swedish Medical Center First Hill Campus (WA)
Virginia Mason Medical Center (WA)
Recently I sent a letter to Jeffrey Weisz, executive medical director of Southern California Permanente Medical Group, telling him that certain Kaiser doctors had inappropriate links with public agencies that buy employee health coverage. I can prove that Kaiser violated the law to help an employer who was being sued by a Kaiser patient. I told Dr. Weisz I'd hand over documentation if the San Diego head of SCPMG, James Malone, would meet with me. I received no response.
So I'm not surprised that "public agencies that buy employee health coverage" would vote for Kaiser. They are getting more from Kaiser than is readily apparent.
"A consortium of large corporations and public agencies that buy employee health coverage, The Leapfrog Group rates hospitals and publishes the annual list in its effort to encourage hospitals to improve safety, quality and affordability."
UCSD, Kaiser San Diego named national Top Hospitals
Janet Lavelle
SDUT
Dec. 6, 2011
UCSD Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center were among 65 hospitals nationwide and the only ones in the county to be named a 2011 “Top Hospital” by the influential Leapfrog Group on Tuesday.
A consortium of large corporations and public agencies that buy employee health coverage, The Leapfrog Group rates hospitals and publishes the annual list in its effort to encourage hospitals to improve safety, quality and affordability.
Nearly 1,200 hospitals voluntarily submitted performance data and participated in Leapfrog’s annual survey, which uses nationally standardized measures so consumers can compare hospitals nationwide.
The survey focused on three areas: patient outcomes, resources used to care for patients, and management practices promoting safety and quality, according to Leapfrog. The organization looked at what hospitals do to prevent medical errors, reduce deaths in high-risk procedures like heart bypass surgery, and reduce hospital readmissions for conditions such as pneumonia and heart attack.
Locally, Alvarado, Paradise Valley and Pomerado hospitals did not participate. Among the 65 award winners nationwide, 21 were in California and 18 of those were Kaiser Permanente hospitals. For more information and to view The Leapfrog Group hospital ratings, visit www.leapfroggroup.org.
Other organizations also provide data for consumers to compare hospital safety and quality.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a nationwide "Hospital Compare" ratings website.
The nonprofit California HealthCare Foundation provides a "Cal Hospital Compare" ratings website just for California hospitals.
[Maura Larkins comment: Warning! The "Cal Hospital Compare" site only looks at how the hospital treats you, not how your doctor treats you. If the doctors are giving poor diagnosis and treatment, you won't see that reflected in this site. You'll only find out about infections and accidents in the hospital. The truth is that Kaiser is rated far lower than UCSD and many other San Diego hospitals as far as overall survival for patients. It is bizarre that Kaiser is given a position alongside UCSD by Leapfrog Group. The motive of Leapfrog Group does not seem to be to ensure the best healthcare for employees. Still don't believe that Kaiser is getting special handling from Leapfrog Group? Look at the list below.]
The Leapfrog Group’s Top Performing Hospitals of 2011
By Khoffman
healthcareerweb.com
December 6, 2011
Leapfrog Group Best Hospitals 2011
Its the end of 2011, which means that the best of 2011 list are coming out. The Leapfrog Group continued their eleven year tradition and have recognized 65 top performing hospitals of 2011.
“The Leapfrog Group survey focuses on three critical areas: (1) how patients fare, (2) resources used to care for patients, and (3) management practices that promote safety and quality. In each of the three areas, Leapfrog asks hospitals to report on nationally standardized measures so healthcare consumers can compare hospitals in their community and across the country.”
Leapfrog Group’s full list of the top performing hospitals of 2011:
2011 Leapfrog Top Hospitals
Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Richmond Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center (CA)
Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center (CA)
Mills-Peninsula Health Services (CA)
Stanford Hospital and Clinics (CA)
UC San Diego Health System, Hillcrest (CA)
Baptist Health South Florida Homestead Hospital (FL)
NorthShore University HealthSystem-Evanston Hospital (IL)
NorthShore University HealthSystem-Glenbrook Hospital (IL)
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (IL)
Rush University Medical Center (IL)
Baystate Medical Center (MA)
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (MA)
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (MA)
Anne Arundel Medical Center (MD)
University of Maryland Medical Center (MD)
Detroit Receiving Hospital/University Health Center (MI)
Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital (MI)
Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital (MI)
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (MI)
University of Michigan Health System (MI)
Regions Hospital (MN)
St. Mary’s Hospital of Rochester (MN)
University of North Carolina Hospitals (NC)
Hackensack University Medical Center (NJ)
The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood(NJ)
Presbyterian Hospital (NM)
Montefiore Medical Center, Weiler Division (NY)
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (NY)
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OH)
The Christ Hospital of Cincinnati (OH)
University Hospitals Case Medical Center (OH)
Lehigh Valley Hospital (PA)
Bon Secours St. Francis Health System – Downtown (SC)
Vanderbilt University Hospital (TN)
Swedish Medical Center First Hill Campus (WA)
Virginia Mason Medical Center (WA)
Monday, December 5, 2011
Kaiser picks Kearny Mesa site for new hospital
“The fact that we’re focused on health, not sickness, makes sense to people.”
--Rodger Dougherty, Kaiser spokesman
"Kaiser's focus on 'health' doesn't make quite so much sense when a patient happens to get sick. Some patients are actually quite surprised when Kaiser fails to properly diagnose and treat them. When they joined, they didn't realize that Kaiser's focus was quite as limited as it turned out to be."
--Maura Larkins, Kaiser patient
Kaiser picks Kearny Mesa site for new hospital
Janet Lavelle
SDUT
Dec. 1, 2011
Kaiser Permanente announced Thursday that it has ended months of study and picked the county operations property in Kearny Mesa as the site for its new hospital, rejecting an option to buy the Alliant University campus in Scripps Ranch.
The decision was met with disappointment by the university and relief by Scripps Ranch residents worried that a hospital would overwhelm the quiet leafy suburb with traffic.
The purchase price for the 19.5-acre County Operations Center Annex property on Ruffin Road is at least $30 million, but would run higher if Kaiser gets permits to build a hospital larger than 425,000 square feet. The sale is scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2013, according to county documents.
County Supervisor Ron Roberts said the site, now home to the Registrar of Voters and some other county offices, makes sense for a hospital.
“It’s served us well for many years but I think it’s a perfect site for Kaiser and it’s got great access from the freeway,” he said. “It would be very compatible with what’s planned in the Kearny Mesa area.”
The property sits at the busy corner of Ruffin Road and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard between Highway 163 and Interstate 15, in a mixed industrial and commercial area with a scattering of residential streets.
Kaiser intends to build and open a 350-bed hospital there by 2018, either replacing or augmenting its existing 392-bed hospital on Zion Avenue in Grantville. By 2030, that facility will no longer meet state earthquake standards and will either need to be torn down, rebuilt or undergo extensive retrofitting, Kaiser spokesman Rodger Dougherty said.
Kaiser officials have said they plan to build up to three hospitals around the county over the next two decades to keep pace with a steadily growing membership.
Dougherty said Kaiser has seen solid growth since 2008 as individuals and employers looked for affordable health care during the recession. Kaiser currently has 506,000 members in San Diego County, adding 14,000 this year, he said.
“We expect that trend to continue, given health care reform and our own model of care,” he said. “The fact that we’re focused on health, not sickness, makes sense to people.”
San Diego’s competitive health care market already is home to 19 hospitals, with a 20th due to open when Palomar Pomerado Health completes a $1 billion hospital in Escondido next year. Scripps Health, Sharp Healthcare and UCSD also are working on major expansions.
Kaiser’s announcement snuffs a pending deal between it and Alliant for the 60-acre campus, which faced stiff opposition from neighbors.
More than 300 people packed a Scripps Ranch Planning Group meeting in November and another 400 sent emails to oppose the Kaiser project over concerns about traffic, lights, noise, emergency evacuation routes and dozens of other issues, vice chairman Robert Ilko said.
Although it was too soon for the committee to take a position on the project, the community sentiment was obvious, Ilko said. “It was clearly no on Kaiser,” he said.
Alliant University president Geoffrey Cox said he was notified of the decision Thursday. “We’re very disappointed,” he said. “We thought it was a good project and fit well with the campus site.”
Cox said the university had decided to look for a new location before Kaiser approached it last spring. The sprawling campus, built 40 years ago for an undergraduate residential university, no longer fits a graduate-degree program with 1,500 day students, he said.
“We were in the very preliminary stages of looking for another site,” he said. “Now we’ll have to regroup and decide whether to continue that process right now.”
The Ruffin Road property has been part of a $460 million agreement between the county and Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group. Under the agreement, Lowe is midway through redeveloping the 32-acre main County Operations Center on Overland Avenue and also has development rights on the Ruffin Road site.
In October, county supervisors voted to allow a transfer of development rights from Lowe to Kaiser for the Ruffin Road land, if Kaiser decided to proceed with a purchase. With that decision now made, the transfer of development rights should be completed within two weeks, said John Kross, deputy director of the county Department of General Services.
The closing date of December 2013 allows the county time to move departments at Ruffin Road over to new buildings at the main operations center.
The Lowe project envisioned a mixed residential and commercial development on Ruffin Road. Kearny Mesa Planning Group Chairman Buzz Gibbs said he thinks a hospital is more appropriate.
“Personally, I would much prefer a hospital there than residential,” he said. “Putting a couple of hundred units in an industrial area is a terrible idea.”
--Rodger Dougherty, Kaiser spokesman
"Kaiser's focus on 'health' doesn't make quite so much sense when a patient happens to get sick. Some patients are actually quite surprised when Kaiser fails to properly diagnose and treat them. When they joined, they didn't realize that Kaiser's focus was quite as limited as it turned out to be."
--Maura Larkins, Kaiser patient
Kaiser picks Kearny Mesa site for new hospital
Janet Lavelle
SDUT
Dec. 1, 2011
Kaiser Permanente announced Thursday that it has ended months of study and picked the county operations property in Kearny Mesa as the site for its new hospital, rejecting an option to buy the Alliant University campus in Scripps Ranch.
The decision was met with disappointment by the university and relief by Scripps Ranch residents worried that a hospital would overwhelm the quiet leafy suburb with traffic.
The purchase price for the 19.5-acre County Operations Center Annex property on Ruffin Road is at least $30 million, but would run higher if Kaiser gets permits to build a hospital larger than 425,000 square feet. The sale is scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2013, according to county documents.
County Supervisor Ron Roberts said the site, now home to the Registrar of Voters and some other county offices, makes sense for a hospital.
“It’s served us well for many years but I think it’s a perfect site for Kaiser and it’s got great access from the freeway,” he said. “It would be very compatible with what’s planned in the Kearny Mesa area.”
The property sits at the busy corner of Ruffin Road and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard between Highway 163 and Interstate 15, in a mixed industrial and commercial area with a scattering of residential streets.
Kaiser intends to build and open a 350-bed hospital there by 2018, either replacing or augmenting its existing 392-bed hospital on Zion Avenue in Grantville. By 2030, that facility will no longer meet state earthquake standards and will either need to be torn down, rebuilt or undergo extensive retrofitting, Kaiser spokesman Rodger Dougherty said.
Kaiser officials have said they plan to build up to three hospitals around the county over the next two decades to keep pace with a steadily growing membership.
Dougherty said Kaiser has seen solid growth since 2008 as individuals and employers looked for affordable health care during the recession. Kaiser currently has 506,000 members in San Diego County, adding 14,000 this year, he said.
“We expect that trend to continue, given health care reform and our own model of care,” he said. “The fact that we’re focused on health, not sickness, makes sense to people.”
San Diego’s competitive health care market already is home to 19 hospitals, with a 20th due to open when Palomar Pomerado Health completes a $1 billion hospital in Escondido next year. Scripps Health, Sharp Healthcare and UCSD also are working on major expansions.
Kaiser’s announcement snuffs a pending deal between it and Alliant for the 60-acre campus, which faced stiff opposition from neighbors.
More than 300 people packed a Scripps Ranch Planning Group meeting in November and another 400 sent emails to oppose the Kaiser project over concerns about traffic, lights, noise, emergency evacuation routes and dozens of other issues, vice chairman Robert Ilko said.
Although it was too soon for the committee to take a position on the project, the community sentiment was obvious, Ilko said. “It was clearly no on Kaiser,” he said.
Alliant University president Geoffrey Cox said he was notified of the decision Thursday. “We’re very disappointed,” he said. “We thought it was a good project and fit well with the campus site.”
Cox said the university had decided to look for a new location before Kaiser approached it last spring. The sprawling campus, built 40 years ago for an undergraduate residential university, no longer fits a graduate-degree program with 1,500 day students, he said.
“We were in the very preliminary stages of looking for another site,” he said. “Now we’ll have to regroup and decide whether to continue that process right now.”
The Ruffin Road property has been part of a $460 million agreement between the county and Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group. Under the agreement, Lowe is midway through redeveloping the 32-acre main County Operations Center on Overland Avenue and also has development rights on the Ruffin Road site.
In October, county supervisors voted to allow a transfer of development rights from Lowe to Kaiser for the Ruffin Road land, if Kaiser decided to proceed with a purchase. With that decision now made, the transfer of development rights should be completed within two weeks, said John Kross, deputy director of the county Department of General Services.
The closing date of December 2013 allows the county time to move departments at Ruffin Road over to new buildings at the main operations center.
The Lowe project envisioned a mixed residential and commercial development on Ruffin Road. Kearny Mesa Planning Group Chairman Buzz Gibbs said he thinks a hospital is more appropriate.
“Personally, I would much prefer a hospital there than residential,” he said. “Putting a couple of hundred units in an industrial area is a terrible idea.”
Computer medical records stolen from Kaiser and from Sutter Health
After data theft, Sutter Health sued
By The Associated Press
Nov. 22, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A group of patients are suing Sutter Health after more than 4 million patient records were stolen.
The Sacramento Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/sKNKT3 ) the class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.
The suit alleges the health care provider was negligent in keeping patients' electronic data safe, and in notifying the patients within 30 days of the theft.
A computer containing the data was stolen in October from the Sutter Medical Foundation's headquarters in Natomas. The computer held descriptions of diagnoses, names and addresses.
Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Buccola says the company should have taken far more measures to keep the data safe.
Sutter "deeply regrets the theft," said spokesman Bill Gleeson. He defended the time it took to reach patients, saying Sutter had to figure out what data were stolen.
Computer medical records stolen from Kaiser
By The Associated Press
Jan. 12, 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kaiser Permanente says a computer drive containing thousands of patient records was stolen from an employee's car.
Hospital officials said Tuesday the external drive stolen Dec. 1 held data on as many as 15,500 patients throughout Northern California, including the patient's name and Kaiser medical records number.
The records could have also included a patient's sex, birth date, phone number and other medical information.
All of the patients live in the Sacramento area, and Kaiser says they have notified those affected.
Hospital spokeswoman Kristin Chambers says the theft presents a "low risk to our patients."
[Maura Larkins' comment: That sounds just like what they tell people with conditions that are not properly diagnosed. Thousands of those people end up dead.]
The hospital has fired the employee, who was authorized to access the data as part of her work, and says it is unclear why she took the device home.
Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com
By The Associated Press
Nov. 22, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A group of patients are suing Sutter Health after more than 4 million patient records were stolen.
The Sacramento Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/sKNKT3 ) the class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.
The suit alleges the health care provider was negligent in keeping patients' electronic data safe, and in notifying the patients within 30 days of the theft.
A computer containing the data was stolen in October from the Sutter Medical Foundation's headquarters in Natomas. The computer held descriptions of diagnoses, names and addresses.
Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Buccola says the company should have taken far more measures to keep the data safe.
Sutter "deeply regrets the theft," said spokesman Bill Gleeson. He defended the time it took to reach patients, saying Sutter had to figure out what data were stolen.
Computer medical records stolen from Kaiser
By The Associated Press
Jan. 12, 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kaiser Permanente says a computer drive containing thousands of patient records was stolen from an employee's car.
Hospital officials said Tuesday the external drive stolen Dec. 1 held data on as many as 15,500 patients throughout Northern California, including the patient's name and Kaiser medical records number.
The records could have also included a patient's sex, birth date, phone number and other medical information.
All of the patients live in the Sacramento area, and Kaiser says they have notified those affected.
Hospital spokeswoman Kristin Chambers says the theft presents a "low risk to our patients."
[Maura Larkins' comment: That sounds just like what they tell people with conditions that are not properly diagnosed. Thousands of those people end up dead.]
The hospital has fired the employee, who was authorized to access the data as part of her work, and says it is unclear why she took the device home.
Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Hospitals target pricey medical devices for savings
Analysis: Hospitals target pricey medical devices for savings
By Susan Kelly
Nov 29, 2011
(Reuters) - When U.S. hospitals cut expenses as the economy slid into recession, they looked first to basic supplies like lightbulbs and bandages. Next on the list: artificial hips and knees.
Implantable devices make up a sizable chunk of typical hospital budgets, and administrators are devising new ways to limit that cost as they brace for cuts to government reimbursement and treat more patients who can't pay for care.
That means methodically working through each category of device, from heart valve replacements and stents to spinal products, to see where they can negotiate lower prices. It also means creating databases of shared information on pricing between hospitals.
"We are pressing very hard on device makers because it is a big piece of the supply puzzle," said Michael Rosenblatt, vice president of supply chain management for SSM Health Care, a St Louis-based system with 15 acute-care hospitals.
Heart and orthopedic device makers have already seen their pricing power erode as patients forgo expensive treatments in the struggling economy, and the new push by hospitals will only intensify that pressure.
"Things are getting worse from a pricing standpoint. The big area of focus is the high-priced cardiac and orthopedic stuff. It's bad, and it's getting worse for everyone," said Mizuho Securities analyst Michael Matson.
Further hampering device makers are product portfolios full of mature technologies that make it harder to justify premiums. Drug-eluting stents are the most extreme example, Matson said, with annual price declines of 10 percent worldwide.
Prices also are falling, though not as dramatically, on pacemakers and defibrillators sold by companies such as Medtronic Inc, Boston Scientific Corp and St Jude Medical Inc, and orthopedic implants made by Stryker Corp and others.
"It's beginning to shift to where manufacturers understand that a lot of these products are really becoming more like commodities," said Christopher Baskel, supply chain director at Spectrum Health Hospital Group, a chain of nine hospitals based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Spectrum has found ways to cut costs in major device categories one by one, beginning with stents, then pacemakers and defibrillators, and recently spine devices. "We just got done doing orthopedic spine. We're starting on hips and knees next, after the first of the year," Baskel said.
To gain an advantage in negotiations with device makers, Spectrum is participating in an information exchange set up through its group purchasing organization, Novation, that allows members to see what other hospitals are paying for products. Company names are blinded.
"There is very little price transparency on these high-end sophisticated devices," said Baskel. "We've been working hard to lift the price transparency veil. We are not going to be satisfied until it's like Amazon.com."
CORRECTIVE MEDICINE
Americans pay far more for healthcare than patients in other developed countries but die earlier, according to the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. They are among the top consumers of costly procedures including hip and knee replacements, MRIs and CT scans. For a graphic, see: link.reuters.com/pyr35s
Such statistics have put greater scrutiny on the role of device makers in driving unsustainable healthcare costs. The U.S. healthcare overhaul also gives financial incentives to hospitals and doctors to collaborate on cost savings while improving the quality of care for patients enrolled in the government's Medicare plan for the elderly.
"If you look at the healthcare system, the pressures are going to flow to those who can absorb them, and these guys have a lot of profit," Mizuho's Matson said.
Closer on the horizon, device makers face a 2.3 percent tax on their product sales beginning in 2013 to help pay for health reform. Stryker earlier this month said it would cut 5 percent of its workforce to help offset the device tax.
David Nexon, senior executive vice president for the Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed), which represents device makers, said some of the emphasis on cost is short-sighted. Devices such as artificial knees keep people out of nursing homes while new minimally invasive surgical techniques reduce the length of hospital stays, he said.
An Advamed-sponsored study found that medical device spending has remained constant at about 6 percent of national health expenditures over a 20-year period through 2009.
"If you look at price data, it doesn't suggest that we are a driver of higher costs, but certainly we've been a driver of greater value," Nexon said.
On the other side of the ledger, hospitals are caring for more people who rely on government programs or have no insurance at all as unemployment remains high. That is straining emergency rooms, which are required by law to provide treatment regardless of ability to pay.
The burdens brought by the struggling economy are making hospitals even more vulnerable to government efforts to reduce the national deficit by cutting the reimbursements they receive.
Premier Inc, a purchasing alliance for more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals, estimates that healthcare providers can expect cuts in reimbursement payments to reach 15 percent to 20 percent of current levels by 2017. So when hospitals look for places to cut, medical devices make even more sense.
DOING THE MATH
Hospitals are already losing thousands of dollars each time they perform one of the top dozen device implant procedures on a Medicare patient, according to Premier, which maintains a large database of patient claims and consults with its members on ways to improve their finances and quality of care.
For example, hospitals in a recent Premier analysis lost almost $15,000 on average for each cardiac valve replacement procedure performed on a Medicare patient.
Hospital administrators compare that with the robust profit margins traditionally enjoyed by medical device makers.
Operating margins for large medical device makers typically range from 25 percent to 28 percent, compared with 7 percent to 10 percent for publicly traded hospital operators, according to Thomson Reuters data. The spread on gross margins is even greater, with device makers in the 70 percent to 80 percent range compared with 35 percent to 55 percent for hospitals, according to analysts...
By Susan Kelly
Nov 29, 2011
(Reuters) - When U.S. hospitals cut expenses as the economy slid into recession, they looked first to basic supplies like lightbulbs and bandages. Next on the list: artificial hips and knees.
Implantable devices make up a sizable chunk of typical hospital budgets, and administrators are devising new ways to limit that cost as they brace for cuts to government reimbursement and treat more patients who can't pay for care.
That means methodically working through each category of device, from heart valve replacements and stents to spinal products, to see where they can negotiate lower prices. It also means creating databases of shared information on pricing between hospitals.
"We are pressing very hard on device makers because it is a big piece of the supply puzzle," said Michael Rosenblatt, vice president of supply chain management for SSM Health Care, a St Louis-based system with 15 acute-care hospitals.
Heart and orthopedic device makers have already seen their pricing power erode as patients forgo expensive treatments in the struggling economy, and the new push by hospitals will only intensify that pressure.
"Things are getting worse from a pricing standpoint. The big area of focus is the high-priced cardiac and orthopedic stuff. It's bad, and it's getting worse for everyone," said Mizuho Securities analyst Michael Matson.
Further hampering device makers are product portfolios full of mature technologies that make it harder to justify premiums. Drug-eluting stents are the most extreme example, Matson said, with annual price declines of 10 percent worldwide.
Prices also are falling, though not as dramatically, on pacemakers and defibrillators sold by companies such as Medtronic Inc, Boston Scientific Corp and St Jude Medical Inc, and orthopedic implants made by Stryker Corp and others.
"It's beginning to shift to where manufacturers understand that a lot of these products are really becoming more like commodities," said Christopher Baskel, supply chain director at Spectrum Health Hospital Group, a chain of nine hospitals based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Spectrum has found ways to cut costs in major device categories one by one, beginning with stents, then pacemakers and defibrillators, and recently spine devices. "We just got done doing orthopedic spine. We're starting on hips and knees next, after the first of the year," Baskel said.
To gain an advantage in negotiations with device makers, Spectrum is participating in an information exchange set up through its group purchasing organization, Novation, that allows members to see what other hospitals are paying for products. Company names are blinded.
"There is very little price transparency on these high-end sophisticated devices," said Baskel. "We've been working hard to lift the price transparency veil. We are not going to be satisfied until it's like Amazon.com."
CORRECTIVE MEDICINE
Americans pay far more for healthcare than patients in other developed countries but die earlier, according to the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. They are among the top consumers of costly procedures including hip and knee replacements, MRIs and CT scans. For a graphic, see: link.reuters.com/pyr35s
Such statistics have put greater scrutiny on the role of device makers in driving unsustainable healthcare costs. The U.S. healthcare overhaul also gives financial incentives to hospitals and doctors to collaborate on cost savings while improving the quality of care for patients enrolled in the government's Medicare plan for the elderly.
"If you look at the healthcare system, the pressures are going to flow to those who can absorb them, and these guys have a lot of profit," Mizuho's Matson said.
Closer on the horizon, device makers face a 2.3 percent tax on their product sales beginning in 2013 to help pay for health reform. Stryker earlier this month said it would cut 5 percent of its workforce to help offset the device tax.
David Nexon, senior executive vice president for the Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed), which represents device makers, said some of the emphasis on cost is short-sighted. Devices such as artificial knees keep people out of nursing homes while new minimally invasive surgical techniques reduce the length of hospital stays, he said.
An Advamed-sponsored study found that medical device spending has remained constant at about 6 percent of national health expenditures over a 20-year period through 2009.
"If you look at price data, it doesn't suggest that we are a driver of higher costs, but certainly we've been a driver of greater value," Nexon said.
On the other side of the ledger, hospitals are caring for more people who rely on government programs or have no insurance at all as unemployment remains high. That is straining emergency rooms, which are required by law to provide treatment regardless of ability to pay.
The burdens brought by the struggling economy are making hospitals even more vulnerable to government efforts to reduce the national deficit by cutting the reimbursements they receive.
Premier Inc, a purchasing alliance for more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals, estimates that healthcare providers can expect cuts in reimbursement payments to reach 15 percent to 20 percent of current levels by 2017. So when hospitals look for places to cut, medical devices make even more sense.
DOING THE MATH
Hospitals are already losing thousands of dollars each time they perform one of the top dozen device implant procedures on a Medicare patient, according to Premier, which maintains a large database of patient claims and consults with its members on ways to improve their finances and quality of care.
For example, hospitals in a recent Premier analysis lost almost $15,000 on average for each cardiac valve replacement procedure performed on a Medicare patient.
Hospital administrators compare that with the robust profit margins traditionally enjoyed by medical device makers.
Operating margins for large medical device makers typically range from 25 percent to 28 percent, compared with 7 percent to 10 percent for publicly traded hospital operators, according to Thomson Reuters data. The spread on gross margins is even greater, with device makers in the 70 percent to 80 percent range compared with 35 percent to 55 percent for hospitals, according to analysts...
Attorneys allowed to gather more evidence in Tri-City wrongful termination suit
Attorneys allowed to gather more evidence in Tri-City wrongful termination suit
Nathan Scharn
Nov. 29, 2011
OCEANSIDE — A U.S. District Court judge issued an order Monday allowing attorneys to gather more evidence in wrongful termination suits between former Tri-City Healthcare District administrators and their former employer, including trustees of the public health care district.
Judge Thomas J. Whelan ruled that attorneys for the administrators would be able to take depositions from defendants involved in a meeting held at Coco’s Restaurant in Vista on Nov. 20, 2008 regarding the discussion at the restaurant. They were fired in 2009 in an overhaul by the elected board of Tri-City’s leadership.
Whelan concluded that the meeting, attended by an attorney and now Chairwoman Rosemarie Reno and trustees Kathleen Sterling, George Coulter and Charlene Anderson, violated the state open government law called the Brown Act.
The law requires public notice of discussions of public business by a majority of elected officials on a board. At the time, only Sterling, who has since been dropped from the case, and Reno were on the board. Coulter and Anderson had been elected, but had not yet assumed office, which constituted a future majority, Whelan said in the ruling.
“The Brown Act also prevents future majorities from gathering privately to make collective commitments affecting the future of the local agency without public input,” Whelan wrote.
The get-together at Coco’s is not related to another controversial dinner meeting, held at West Steak and Seafood in Carlsbad in May 2010 and attended by Reno, Sterling and Coulter, though that meeting has been a factor in several lawsuits, including criminal hearings.
Much of the Coco’s meeting has been kept secret under Magistrate Judge Bernard G. Skomal’s July 18, 2011 discovery order, which held that the discussion at the meeting fell under attorney client privilege. Whelan reversed that, saying the meeting violated the law “in furtherance of a present criminal act,” the ruling said, and was thus exempt from the privilege.
The depositions could provide significant facts in the wrongful termination suit between the former administrators and the health care district.
Trustees fired nine employees after placing them on paid administrative leave. Then-Chief Executive Arthur Gonzalez received a severance package in 2009 worth as much as $1 million. Seven others sought damages in excess of $100,000.
Earlier this year, former vice president of strategic services Allen Coleman received $385,000 and former vice president of performance improvement William “Terry” Howell received $390,000 in settlements, their attorney Ray Artiano and Tri-City officials have confirmed. The other five employees are still pursuing the lawsuit.
The other employees fired were Suellyn Ellerbe, chief operating officer and chief nurse executive; Robert Wardwell, chief financial officer; Doreen Sanderson, vice president of human resources; Daniel Groszkruger, director of information systems; and Ondrea Labella, director of patient business services.
Whelan denied part of the ex-administrators’ contention that Skomal had erred as a matter of law.
Public Tri-City Healthcare District serves residents in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista.
Nathan Scharn
Nov. 29, 2011
OCEANSIDE — A U.S. District Court judge issued an order Monday allowing attorneys to gather more evidence in wrongful termination suits between former Tri-City Healthcare District administrators and their former employer, including trustees of the public health care district.
Judge Thomas J. Whelan ruled that attorneys for the administrators would be able to take depositions from defendants involved in a meeting held at Coco’s Restaurant in Vista on Nov. 20, 2008 regarding the discussion at the restaurant. They were fired in 2009 in an overhaul by the elected board of Tri-City’s leadership.
Whelan concluded that the meeting, attended by an attorney and now Chairwoman Rosemarie Reno and trustees Kathleen Sterling, George Coulter and Charlene Anderson, violated the state open government law called the Brown Act.
The law requires public notice of discussions of public business by a majority of elected officials on a board. At the time, only Sterling, who has since been dropped from the case, and Reno were on the board. Coulter and Anderson had been elected, but had not yet assumed office, which constituted a future majority, Whelan said in the ruling.
“The Brown Act also prevents future majorities from gathering privately to make collective commitments affecting the future of the local agency without public input,” Whelan wrote.
The get-together at Coco’s is not related to another controversial dinner meeting, held at West Steak and Seafood in Carlsbad in May 2010 and attended by Reno, Sterling and Coulter, though that meeting has been a factor in several lawsuits, including criminal hearings.
Much of the Coco’s meeting has been kept secret under Magistrate Judge Bernard G. Skomal’s July 18, 2011 discovery order, which held that the discussion at the meeting fell under attorney client privilege. Whelan reversed that, saying the meeting violated the law “in furtherance of a present criminal act,” the ruling said, and was thus exempt from the privilege.
The depositions could provide significant facts in the wrongful termination suit between the former administrators and the health care district.
Trustees fired nine employees after placing them on paid administrative leave. Then-Chief Executive Arthur Gonzalez received a severance package in 2009 worth as much as $1 million. Seven others sought damages in excess of $100,000.
Earlier this year, former vice president of strategic services Allen Coleman received $385,000 and former vice president of performance improvement William “Terry” Howell received $390,000 in settlements, their attorney Ray Artiano and Tri-City officials have confirmed. The other five employees are still pursuing the lawsuit.
The other employees fired were Suellyn Ellerbe, chief operating officer and chief nurse executive; Robert Wardwell, chief financial officer; Doreen Sanderson, vice president of human resources; Daniel Groszkruger, director of information systems; and Ondrea Labella, director of patient business services.
Whelan denied part of the ex-administrators’ contention that Skomal had erred as a matter of law.
Public Tri-City Healthcare District serves residents in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista.
Kaiser Permanente whistle-blower Emily Ryan from Roseville, California
My name is Emily Ryan. I'm a Courage Campaign member and psychiatric social worker for Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, California. Recently I came forward, along with several colleagues, to blow the whistle on Kaiser's illegal and morally inexcusable mental health policies.
We've risked our careers to contribute to “Care Delayed, Care Denied” a report by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which was featured in USA Today¹ and The Huffington Post.² Now, Kaiser will use its army of lobbyists and PR flacks to try to stop an investigation. This "non-profit" corporation has made more than $5.4 billion in the last three years and pays its CEO a salary of $9 million a year. Unless Governor Brown's Department of Managed Health Care pursues an investigation, Kaiser's billion dollar spin machine will succeed in silencing our voices.
We need your help. Please click here to demand Governor Brown start an investigation.
If you or anyone in your family suffers from mental illness or acute emotional pain, you know how damaging it can be. If they have Kaiser, they're likely to have an experience like Timm Sinclair, who told us,
My mother, a Kaiser member of 20 years, is 77 years old and has Parkinson's. She also suffers from chronic recurrent depression and severe anxiety disorder. The difficulties in getting her psychological and psychiatric needs met at Kaiser have been distressing for her and for me. Along with a revolving cast of doctors and therapists we have encountered lengthy delays of up to three months. I find it inconceivable that an organization that is supposedly dedicated to ensuring that their members 'Thrive' would allow this to happen.
Join us to demand Governor Brown direct the Department of Managed Health Care to investigate Kaiser!
Kaiser puts profits before patients. This year, they raised rates an average of 9.5% and are planning another hike -- their second in six months -- this January, but they refuse to hire enough staff to serve their patients adequately. Our report -- based a survey of over 300 Kaiser mental health professionals practicing at 57 Kaiser facilities in Northern and Southern California -- revealed the following:
• 90% report there is insufficient staffing at their clinic;
• patients, including those suffering from major depression and thoughts of suicide, are frequently forced to wait four weeks or longer for return appointments, despite California law requiring they be seen within ten business days;
• Kaiser falsifies patient scheduling records to conceal these delays from state regulators;
• and Kaiser often funnels patients into group therapy even when clinicians believe that individual therapy would be more effective.
Please ask the Governor to stand up for Timm, his mother, and the thousands of patients who rely on the country's largest HMO for their mental health services.
Emily Ryan
Kaiser Permanente psychiatric social worker and Courage Campaign member
1. USA Today
2. Huffington Post
We've risked our careers to contribute to “Care Delayed, Care Denied” a report by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which was featured in USA Today¹ and The Huffington Post.² Now, Kaiser will use its army of lobbyists and PR flacks to try to stop an investigation. This "non-profit" corporation has made more than $5.4 billion in the last three years and pays its CEO a salary of $9 million a year. Unless Governor Brown's Department of Managed Health Care pursues an investigation, Kaiser's billion dollar spin machine will succeed in silencing our voices.
We need your help. Please click here to demand Governor Brown start an investigation.
If you or anyone in your family suffers from mental illness or acute emotional pain, you know how damaging it can be. If they have Kaiser, they're likely to have an experience like Timm Sinclair, who told us,
My mother, a Kaiser member of 20 years, is 77 years old and has Parkinson's. She also suffers from chronic recurrent depression and severe anxiety disorder. The difficulties in getting her psychological and psychiatric needs met at Kaiser have been distressing for her and for me. Along with a revolving cast of doctors and therapists we have encountered lengthy delays of up to three months. I find it inconceivable that an organization that is supposedly dedicated to ensuring that their members 'Thrive' would allow this to happen.
Join us to demand Governor Brown direct the Department of Managed Health Care to investigate Kaiser!
Kaiser puts profits before patients. This year, they raised rates an average of 9.5% and are planning another hike -- their second in six months -- this January, but they refuse to hire enough staff to serve their patients adequately. Our report -- based a survey of over 300 Kaiser mental health professionals practicing at 57 Kaiser facilities in Northern and Southern California -- revealed the following:
• 90% report there is insufficient staffing at their clinic;
• patients, including those suffering from major depression and thoughts of suicide, are frequently forced to wait four weeks or longer for return appointments, despite California law requiring they be seen within ten business days;
• Kaiser falsifies patient scheduling records to conceal these delays from state regulators;
• and Kaiser often funnels patients into group therapy even when clinicians believe that individual therapy would be more effective.
Please ask the Governor to stand up for Timm, his mother, and the thousands of patients who rely on the country's largest HMO for their mental health services.
Emily Ryan
Kaiser Permanente psychiatric social worker and Courage Campaign member
1. USA Today
2. Huffington Post
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Lack of record access drives up costs at L.A. hospitals for poor
Lack of record access drives up costs at L.A. hospitals for poor
L.A.'s safety-net hospitals are scrambling to match others nationally that use electronic records and integrated systems to manage care for low-income patients and cut costly hospitalizations.
By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times
November 25, 2011
The emergency room at White Memorial Medical Center on Los Angeles' Eastside was buzzing when paramedics arrived on a Friday night with an elderly man slurring his words and complaining of aching bones.
The nurse in the receiving bay immediately ran through standard triage questions: "Are you diabetic? Do you have high blood pressure? Are you allergic to any medications?" Each drew the same response: "I don't know."
The hospital and doctors had no record of the man or his medical history. And with their only guide a piece of crumpled paper they found tucked into the man's pants that seemed to indicate he might have had cancer, doctors had to order a full diagnostic work-up, including blood tests and an EKG to check his heart.
It was another night of high-priced detective work at one of America's urban hospitals.
"We're mostly flying blind here," said Dr. Brian Johnston, the senior emergency room physician at White Memorial, shaking his head at the high costs generated by the lack of records and unnecessary testing.
Waste bedevils much of America's fragmented healthcare system, driving up already skyrocketing costs. As health spending overwhelms government budgets, the stakes are especially high for safety-net institutions like White Memorial that serve the country's poorest patients, largely at taxpayer expense.
The best safety-net systems — in Denver, Dallas, New York and elsewhere — have found ways to practice medicine more efficiently, using electronic records and integrated systems to manage care for low-income patients and cut costly hospitalizations.
In Los Angeles, Chicago and many other cities, local healthcare officials are now scrambling to catch up.
"There is really no system of care here," said Allen Miller, a Los Angeles consultant who is working with private hospitals, clinics and physicians on a potentially trailblazing initiative to link together medical providers that care for some of Los Angeles County's neediest patients...
L.A.'s safety-net hospitals are scrambling to match others nationally that use electronic records and integrated systems to manage care for low-income patients and cut costly hospitalizations.
By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times
November 25, 2011
The emergency room at White Memorial Medical Center on Los Angeles' Eastside was buzzing when paramedics arrived on a Friday night with an elderly man slurring his words and complaining of aching bones.
The nurse in the receiving bay immediately ran through standard triage questions: "Are you diabetic? Do you have high blood pressure? Are you allergic to any medications?" Each drew the same response: "I don't know."
The hospital and doctors had no record of the man or his medical history. And with their only guide a piece of crumpled paper they found tucked into the man's pants that seemed to indicate he might have had cancer, doctors had to order a full diagnostic work-up, including blood tests and an EKG to check his heart.
It was another night of high-priced detective work at one of America's urban hospitals.
"We're mostly flying blind here," said Dr. Brian Johnston, the senior emergency room physician at White Memorial, shaking his head at the high costs generated by the lack of records and unnecessary testing.
Waste bedevils much of America's fragmented healthcare system, driving up already skyrocketing costs. As health spending overwhelms government budgets, the stakes are especially high for safety-net institutions like White Memorial that serve the country's poorest patients, largely at taxpayer expense.
The best safety-net systems — in Denver, Dallas, New York and elsewhere — have found ways to practice medicine more efficiently, using electronic records and integrated systems to manage care for low-income patients and cut costly hospitalizations.
In Los Angeles, Chicago and many other cities, local healthcare officials are now scrambling to catch up.
"There is really no system of care here," said Allen Miller, a Los Angeles consultant who is working with private hospitals, clinics and physicians on a potentially trailblazing initiative to link together medical providers that care for some of Los Angeles County's neediest patients...
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