Showing posts with label . Pearl (Robert Pearl MD). Show all posts
Showing posts with label . Pearl (Robert Pearl MD). Show all posts
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Kaiser Permanente CEO Robert Pearl Talks About Medical Errors--and inadvertently admits he deceived the court
Kaiser has had serious problems with medical errors, but prefers to point the finger at others.
There are some serious problems with Dr. Pearl's story (below) about his father's death. As proven by The Kaiser Papers, Dr. Pearl's father died in Florida, apparently a considerable time AFTER Dr. Pearl says he found his father on the living room floor in California. Why didn't Dr. Pearl investigate the cause of his father's sepsis during that time? Why did he wait until after his father was dead to look into his care?
Another problem is that Dr. Pearl apparently lied in court about the cause of his father's death. He sued the woman who caused a car accident long before his father's death, and forced the woman to pay for Dr. Pearl's pain and suffering at the loss of his father. But Dr. Pearl now admits that the accident was survivable, and the cause of death was actually a medical mistake.
Why didn't Dr. Pearl bother to check on his father's care BEFORE he died?
Dr. Pearl says his father visited him in California after the car accident, at which time his father collapsed from sepsis. The older man apparently recovered enough to return to Florida, but Dr. Pearl didn't bother to make sure his father had received the proper immunizations against infection.
I seems that Dr. Pearl may have invented the story about his father's visit to California. Is this a terrible thing for Dr. Pearl to have done? No, I don't think that it matters much where things happened.
I think it does matter, however, that Dr. Pearl gave one reason in court (in an effort to achieve financial gain) regarding his father's death, and then gave another reason to the media to attract patients to Kaiser Permanente (also to achieve financial gain)!
The place doesn't matter. The reason for, and the time of, the death are extremely important. If doctors killed him, then the much-earlier car accident was survivable. If the old man would have survived except for improper medical care, then the car accident was not the proximate cause of death. But that's NOT what Dr. Pearl said in court.
Kaiser CEO Talks To ABC7 About Medical Errors
December 03, 2005
By Karina Rusk
ABC7 (KGO)
The man at the helm of Kaiser-Permanente speaks to ABC7 about a series of deadly medical mistakes and his personal connection to medical tragedy.
Dr. Robert Pearl is not only the CEO of the Permanente Medical Group, he is a son who lost his father to a medical error.
After an operation on the East Coast, Dr. Pearl's father did not receive a common and necessary vaccine.
Robert Pearl, M.D., Permanente Medical Group CEO: "As a consequence, one day when he was visiting me in California he was found unresponsive on the living room floor early in the morning with pneumococcal septicemia."
Dr. Pearl says that post operative infection took his father's life two years ago. The Institute of Medicine says such medical errors result in as many as 98,000 preventable deaths each year.
Dr. Pearl says that 1999 report is important to him professionally and personally.
Dr. Pearl: "If you use the national numbers, he is but a statistic. As a family member it is a tragedy."
The case of Chris Wibeto is another tragedy. He died in August at Kaiser Santa Teresa in San Jose after receiving the wrong cancer medication.
At Kaiser Santa Clara, three patients died within the last year due to medical error.
Dr. Pearl wants people to keep in mind Kaiser Permanente serves 3.2 million members in Northern California.
Dr. Pearl: "So no, I don't think there is a problem at all. In fact, I really believe Kaiser Permanente is a national leader in patient safety and Kasier Santa Clara is a facility that is exceptional."
Dr. Pearl says he and his own family are treated at Kaiser Santa Clara.
Despite occasional human error, Dr. Pearl maintains Kaiser has aggressive systems in place to prevent deadly mistakes like his fathers.
Dr. Pearl: "Had he been as member of Kasier Permanente, he would be alive today."
To find out why Dr. Pearl says Kaiser is being unfairly singled out and what he's doing to prevent future medical mistakes, watch the entire, unedited interview by clicking on the Video link above.
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.]
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