Doctor turns in medical license for reportedly viewing child porn at work
Dave Thomas
San Diego News Examiner
December 22, 2011
An area doctor was prohibited from practicing medicine after he was reportedly nabbed viewing child porn in his El Cajon practice.
According to a 10News report, Dr. Mark Zweifach had to turn in his medical license earlier this month as a result of being caught looking at images of child porn while at work. Reports say Zweifach has been practicing medicine since 1982.
The California Medical Board records noted:
"In about July, August, and September 2007, Respondent, a physician with Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, California, used his Kaiser Permanente assigned computer in his office in the Kaiser Permanente Bostonia Medical Office Building, located in El Cajon, California, to access suspected child pornography websites on the internet. When confronted by Kaiser Permanente investigators, Respondent, admitted accessing the websites at work, and further admitted an addiction to internet pornography."
After it was discovered he had viewed child pornography, records show Zweifach -- who ceased working at Kaiser Permanente in 2007 -- voluntarily suspended his practice, but the board did not order him to surrender his license until this December. The board also required Zweifach to register as a sex offender.
Showing posts with label San Diego. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Diego. Show all posts
Saturday, January 7, 2012
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.”
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
How is Kaiser Permanente in San Diego? Lawsuits and investigations
City-Data.com
11-06-2011
thepinksquid Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, California
How is Kaiser Permanente in San Diego?
Hello my knowledgeable City-Data friends...
How is Kaiser Permanente care in San Diego? I'm considering changing my health insurance to Kaiser Permanente next year, but I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive as I've never had anything like KP before.
The Kaiser plan I could get through my employer is extremely inexpensive and offers a health reimbursement account, so I'd essentially have no out of pocket costs other than my paycheck deduction (which is very low). Right now I have a Health Net HMO... and it's fine, but unfortunately my doctor is retiring so I have to choose a new one anyhow. I'd love a PPO but the one my employer offers is super $$$. I'm fortunate to not have any major medical issues and my yearly costs are pretty low.
Any thoughts? Are some San Diego Kaiser facilities better than other ones? I live close to the Zion and Vandever hospitals, but would gladly go further for better care. It seems some people LOVE Kaiser, and others love to complain about it.
Is there a reason it's so cheap? Is it better to spend the extra money not go with Kaiser? Thanks!
__________________
Moderator of San Diego, San Jose & San Francisco sub-forums. =]
11-06-2011
AADAD
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Eagle River, Alaska & San Diego, CA
Yes there is a reason. It is at times inferior health care. Kaiser is built on a platform of efficiency first not care. Hats off to the hard working people there but I have had several friends have recent horror stories this year.
As a clinician I would advise you to stay away. As a consumer I can say you get what you pay for.
...I hear this quite a bit also. If you are in good health, KP may be better for you. If you are sick, really ill or really injured in that event KP is last on my list. In addition, they traditionally have much poorer scores for acute inpatient care. The nice(ities) fall off when you are hospitalized. In addition, your access to key clinical doctors is limited by their system. As I said, I have had two friends this year alone who were misdiagnosed (one who did not have stage 4 lung cancer but instead an infection she got while caving hystoplasmosis) after months of telling people she was dying she finally saw another specialist outside the KP system. I also had good experiences with pediatrics for my children. If you get sick, really sick KP is the last place one wants to be IMHO.
Maura Larkins
To find out how Kaiser compares, go to US News and World Report hospital ranking:
http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals
I agree with AADAD that Kaiser is fine when you're healthy or when you have typical, though serious symptoms. You won't find Dr. House at Kaiser. They don't have the time to deal with any symptoms that aren't on their list of things to look for. They have a tendency to miss cancer diagnoses (both my friend and my mother were never seen by a Kaiser oncologist before their deaths from cancer). Most Kaiser facilities have outdated technology. (I see in the rankings in US News (see above) that the Medical Center on Sunset in Los Angeles is an exception.)
Kaiser Permanente Member Services is a joke. They cover-up serious problems. I recently complained that my X-rays taken on June 15, 2011 at the brand-new Garfield Specialty Center in Kearny Mesa were unavailable to my doctors. Member Services told me that the X-rays had not been saved electronically, but that the technician had saved a few X-rays on thermal paper and sent me some blurry photo-copied pages. Yet their advertising says all X-rays at Garfield Specialty Center are digitized! Are they lying to me or are they lying to everybody else???? I put my documents and X-rays on this webpage:
http://mauralarkins.com/kaiserurology.html
I complained to Member Services that the medical report about the X-rays was compromised. Kaiser's story was that the report had not been written by the urologist who had been present on June 15, 2011 and had seen the large series of X-rays as they were being taken, and spoken to me and examined me, but rather that the official report was written 5 days later by a non-urologist who had seen only 5 images on thermal paper! Also, the report had the wrong date of the procedure, the wrong referring doctor, and it was signed three days BEFORE it was supposedly written.
What did Member Services do with my complaint about tampering? They tampered with it! They changed it to say I was unhappy about not getting an anti-fungal medication--from a urologist! I did not want or need an anti-fungal medication; also, it is gynecologists or primary care doctors, not urologists, who deal with yeast infections. Kaiser can't even come up with a clever cover story.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the urology department in San Diego had lower than expected survival rates last year and average survival this year. About half of all hospitals have "better" or "much better" than expected survival rates.
Maura Larkins
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: San Diego
They're playing the percentages. They take care of the simple cases.
Quote:
(Originally Posted by earlyretirement)
Definitely I think you will find people that are happy with Kaiser and probably will find people that will complain as well. One thing I'll say is that for all of our visits with our doctors, someone from Kaiser followed up with a phone call the next day to see how everything went and even asked if we had any complaints. I've never had an health care insurance provider do something like that before. So definitely I do think they care about customer service and satisfaction.
They're playing the percentages. They take care of the simple cases--and almost all cases are simple. They want to please the majority of their patients. But they make a lot of profit, and they do it by cutting corners and denying care strategically. When they get taken to court, they say that the case was unusual, and they couldn't be expected to know what to do.
AADAD
Making people happy does not make them healthy.
That pleasing the consumer is the trend now in health care to satisfy the consumer irrespective of solving the complex medical problems that they arrive with (on their own). From Scripps to Kaiser and Sharp to UCSD patient satisfaction scores are the goal. To make it worse, Medicare is linking payments to how well patients were "pleased" and satisfied. Nothing in my experience could be more undoing to the goal of sustaining a healthy person.
The steps to take now are to educate yourself and ask questions. Doctors and nurses are trained to solve problems related to our human bodies. We do better when we have a person who tells us about themselves. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of times the patient feeling satisfied gets directly in the way of helping them to be healthy down the road.
Kaiser is known for pleasing it's customer and in serious illness they would rather do that than solve the more complex problems. I concur on the cancer dx issues related in the post above. Kaiser puts it footmark on prevention. Once you are really sick, you would be better off in another hospital system. Stay alert to your bodies changes take notes do research and ask questions because in 5 years the nurse at your bedside will not be interested in asking key questions which would potentially save your life, they will be asking you how you want your coffee.
11-14-2011
tonyinsd
Not to resurrect a dead topic, but here's something that Huffington Post wrote about Kaiser's mental health services.
Kaiser Permanente Makes Billions In Profits While Overburdening Staff: Report
Maura Larkins
Location: San Diego
Why would this be a dead topic? This is fascinating, and seems to reveal that Kaiser is unrepentant about practices in the San Diego Psychiatry Department that led to a lawsuit and investigation in 2000:
Kaiser's Prescribing Policy Leads To Lawsuit, Ethics Concerns
Psychiatric News
May 5, 2000
One of the nation’s best-known HMOs has ignited a furor by requiring psychiatrists at one of its California facilities to write prescriptions for patients they have never seen.
Kaiser Permanente’s policy for psychiatrists in its San Diego area facilities stipulates that when they receive a request for a prescription for a patient that a staff psychologist, social worker, or family therapist is seeing, they are to comply with the request and write the prescription without scheduling a visit with the patient.
Widespread publicity about the policy, which was the focus of an April 13 Los Angeles Times article, has generated heated responses from psychiatrists and others concerned about how such a policy could seriously compromise patient care and put psychiatrists in ethical jeopardy.
The article revealed that a state agency was investigating this practice and that a psychiatrist who lost his job after refusing to follow the policy was suing Kaiser Permanente.
The day after the article appeared, APA issued a press release strongly condemning the policy as an example of "unethical" medical practice....
11-06-2011
thepinksquid Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, California
How is Kaiser Permanente in San Diego?
Hello my knowledgeable City-Data friends...
How is Kaiser Permanente care in San Diego? I'm considering changing my health insurance to Kaiser Permanente next year, but I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive as I've never had anything like KP before.
The Kaiser plan I could get through my employer is extremely inexpensive and offers a health reimbursement account, so I'd essentially have no out of pocket costs other than my paycheck deduction (which is very low). Right now I have a Health Net HMO... and it's fine, but unfortunately my doctor is retiring so I have to choose a new one anyhow. I'd love a PPO but the one my employer offers is super $$$. I'm fortunate to not have any major medical issues and my yearly costs are pretty low.
Any thoughts? Are some San Diego Kaiser facilities better than other ones? I live close to the Zion and Vandever hospitals, but would gladly go further for better care. It seems some people LOVE Kaiser, and others love to complain about it.
Is there a reason it's so cheap? Is it better to spend the extra money not go with Kaiser? Thanks!
__________________
Moderator of San Diego, San Jose & San Francisco sub-forums. =]
11-06-2011
AADAD
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Eagle River, Alaska & San Diego, CA
Yes there is a reason. It is at times inferior health care. Kaiser is built on a platform of efficiency first not care. Hats off to the hard working people there but I have had several friends have recent horror stories this year.
As a clinician I would advise you to stay away. As a consumer I can say you get what you pay for.
...I hear this quite a bit also. If you are in good health, KP may be better for you. If you are sick, really ill or really injured in that event KP is last on my list. In addition, they traditionally have much poorer scores for acute inpatient care. The nice(ities) fall off when you are hospitalized. In addition, your access to key clinical doctors is limited by their system. As I said, I have had two friends this year alone who were misdiagnosed (one who did not have stage 4 lung cancer but instead an infection she got while caving hystoplasmosis) after months of telling people she was dying she finally saw another specialist outside the KP system. I also had good experiences with pediatrics for my children. If you get sick, really sick KP is the last place one wants to be IMHO.
Maura Larkins
To find out how Kaiser compares, go to US News and World Report hospital ranking:
http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals
I agree with AADAD that Kaiser is fine when you're healthy or when you have typical, though serious symptoms. You won't find Dr. House at Kaiser. They don't have the time to deal with any symptoms that aren't on their list of things to look for. They have a tendency to miss cancer diagnoses (both my friend and my mother were never seen by a Kaiser oncologist before their deaths from cancer). Most Kaiser facilities have outdated technology. (I see in the rankings in US News (see above) that the Medical Center on Sunset in Los Angeles is an exception.)
Kaiser Permanente Member Services is a joke. They cover-up serious problems. I recently complained that my X-rays taken on June 15, 2011 at the brand-new Garfield Specialty Center in Kearny Mesa were unavailable to my doctors. Member Services told me that the X-rays had not been saved electronically, but that the technician had saved a few X-rays on thermal paper and sent me some blurry photo-copied pages. Yet their advertising says all X-rays at Garfield Specialty Center are digitized! Are they lying to me or are they lying to everybody else???? I put my documents and X-rays on this webpage:
http://mauralarkins.com/kaiserurology.html
I complained to Member Services that the medical report about the X-rays was compromised. Kaiser's story was that the report had not been written by the urologist who had been present on June 15, 2011 and had seen the large series of X-rays as they were being taken, and spoken to me and examined me, but rather that the official report was written 5 days later by a non-urologist who had seen only 5 images on thermal paper! Also, the report had the wrong date of the procedure, the wrong referring doctor, and it was signed three days BEFORE it was supposedly written.
What did Member Services do with my complaint about tampering? They tampered with it! They changed it to say I was unhappy about not getting an anti-fungal medication--from a urologist! I did not want or need an anti-fungal medication; also, it is gynecologists or primary care doctors, not urologists, who deal with yeast infections. Kaiser can't even come up with a clever cover story.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the urology department in San Diego had lower than expected survival rates last year and average survival this year. About half of all hospitals have "better" or "much better" than expected survival rates.
Maura Larkins
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: San Diego
They're playing the percentages. They take care of the simple cases.
Quote:
(Originally Posted by earlyretirement)
Definitely I think you will find people that are happy with Kaiser and probably will find people that will complain as well. One thing I'll say is that for all of our visits with our doctors, someone from Kaiser followed up with a phone call the next day to see how everything went and even asked if we had any complaints. I've never had an health care insurance provider do something like that before. So definitely I do think they care about customer service and satisfaction.
They're playing the percentages. They take care of the simple cases--and almost all cases are simple. They want to please the majority of their patients. But they make a lot of profit, and they do it by cutting corners and denying care strategically. When they get taken to court, they say that the case was unusual, and they couldn't be expected to know what to do.
AADAD
Making people happy does not make them healthy.
That pleasing the consumer is the trend now in health care to satisfy the consumer irrespective of solving the complex medical problems that they arrive with (on their own). From Scripps to Kaiser and Sharp to UCSD patient satisfaction scores are the goal. To make it worse, Medicare is linking payments to how well patients were "pleased" and satisfied. Nothing in my experience could be more undoing to the goal of sustaining a healthy person.
The steps to take now are to educate yourself and ask questions. Doctors and nurses are trained to solve problems related to our human bodies. We do better when we have a person who tells us about themselves. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of times the patient feeling satisfied gets directly in the way of helping them to be healthy down the road.
Kaiser is known for pleasing it's customer and in serious illness they would rather do that than solve the more complex problems. I concur on the cancer dx issues related in the post above. Kaiser puts it footmark on prevention. Once you are really sick, you would be better off in another hospital system. Stay alert to your bodies changes take notes do research and ask questions because in 5 years the nurse at your bedside will not be interested in asking key questions which would potentially save your life, they will be asking you how you want your coffee.
11-14-2011
tonyinsd
Not to resurrect a dead topic, but here's something that Huffington Post wrote about Kaiser's mental health services.
Kaiser Permanente Makes Billions In Profits While Overburdening Staff: Report
Maura Larkins
Location: San Diego
Why would this be a dead topic? This is fascinating, and seems to reveal that Kaiser is unrepentant about practices in the San Diego Psychiatry Department that led to a lawsuit and investigation in 2000:
Kaiser's Prescribing Policy Leads To Lawsuit, Ethics Concerns
Psychiatric News
May 5, 2000
One of the nation’s best-known HMOs has ignited a furor by requiring psychiatrists at one of its California facilities to write prescriptions for patients they have never seen.
Kaiser Permanente’s policy for psychiatrists in its San Diego area facilities stipulates that when they receive a request for a prescription for a patient that a staff psychologist, social worker, or family therapist is seeing, they are to comply with the request and write the prescription without scheduling a visit with the patient.
Widespread publicity about the policy, which was the focus of an April 13 Los Angeles Times article, has generated heated responses from psychiatrists and others concerned about how such a policy could seriously compromise patient care and put psychiatrists in ethical jeopardy.
The article revealed that a state agency was investigating this practice and that a psychiatrist who lost his job after refusing to follow the policy was suing Kaiser Permanente.
The day after the article appeared, APA issued a press release strongly condemning the policy as an example of "unethical" medical practice....
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Selected Kaiser Employees Will Strike for 24 Hours Starting Wednesday
Selected Kaiser Employees Will Strike for 24 Hours Starting Wednesday
National Union of Healthcare Workers says San Diego will not see pickets, but local teachers' union leader urges members to respect picket lines.
By Ken Stone
May 17, 2011
Kaiser-Permanente health-care workers will stage a 24-hour strike starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday throughout Southern California, including offices in San Diego County, union officials say.
Kaiser has hospitals and clinics in Carlsbad, La Mesa, Point Loma, Bonita, El Cajon, Escondido, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos and Vista.
About 200 San Diego employees of Kaiser-Permanente will walk off the job barring a “miracle,” a union spokesman said Tuesday.
The staffers—social workers, psychologists, speech pathologists, audiologists, health educators and dieticians—will conduct a one-day strike at Kaiser facilities around San Diego County, and throughout Southern California, said Leighton Woodhouse of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
“It would be close to a miracle for it not to happen,” Woodhouse told City News Service.
Kaiser’s Point Loma Medical Offices will be most affected, with 52 employees not reporting to work, he said.
According to Woodhouse, the union and Kaiser disagree over staff levels and proposed cuts to health-care coverage and retirement benefits.
The company is in negotiations with three NUHW bargaining units, said Kaiser spokeswoman Mina Nguyen.
She said all facilities in San Diego County will operate normally and patients should keep their physicians appointments. However, routine nonemergency appointments to see social workers and psychologists may need to be rescheduled, she said.
Tuesday, the National Union of Healthcare Workers said: “2,500 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers throughout Southern California will go on strike for 24 hours. Our strike will be the single largest work action by NUHW members since the founding of our union. We’re telling the world the truth about Kaiser Permanente.”
Other unions were asking their members to respect picket lines at Kaiser facilities—even though NUHW said no picketing would occur in San Diego.
“If you have a non-urgent medical appointment scheduled during that 24-hour period, please consider rescheduling it,” wrote Jim Mahler, president of San Diego Local 1931 of the American Federation of Teachers. “Please honor the picket line of our brothers and sisters at Kaiser.”
Kimberly Tubbs, a registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente’s flagship Los Angeles Medical Center, wrote on the union website:
“It is AMAZING to me that Kaiser has been unwilling to reasonably discuss fair wages at the bargaining table. This month Kaiser reported $10 million per day in profits for the first quarter. This is the same company who wants to cut our pensions, reduce our benefits and not fairly compensate us!
Tubbs, a recovery room nurse, said she works eight-hour shifts on weekdays, and “it is my responsibility to care for patients who are coming right out of surgery as they are emerging from their anesthesia-induced sleep. This requires skilled training in Critical Care and Pediatrics. There are many complications that can arise after surgery, and as a ‘post-op’ nurse, I have to be skilled and prepared to handle any complication or emergency that comes up.
“Most days at work, I start to worry about IF I’m going to be able to leave on time around 3 in the afternoon, which is two hours before my shift ends. It is a regular occurrence that most of my fellow nurses and myself are required to stay past our shift because there isn’t anyone to take our patients.”
She argued that Kaiser can no longer claim financial hardship.
“They are surviving quite well through this economic hard times. In fact, I think they are THRIVING. Thriving to the tune of $10 million a day! I can’t really say that the nurses are thriving; in fact we’re barely surviving with the added workload and forced overtime.”
COMMENT
Ken Stone
4:39pm on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, building administrator Michelle Gibson said the Kaiser La Mesa primary care offices she oversees had seen no picketing, and nobody's scheduled appointment had to be canceled.
National Union of Healthcare Workers says San Diego will not see pickets, but local teachers' union leader urges members to respect picket lines.
By Ken Stone
May 17, 2011
Kaiser-Permanente health-care workers will stage a 24-hour strike starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday throughout Southern California, including offices in San Diego County, union officials say.
Kaiser has hospitals and clinics in Carlsbad, La Mesa, Point Loma, Bonita, El Cajon, Escondido, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos and Vista.
About 200 San Diego employees of Kaiser-Permanente will walk off the job barring a “miracle,” a union spokesman said Tuesday.
The staffers—social workers, psychologists, speech pathologists, audiologists, health educators and dieticians—will conduct a one-day strike at Kaiser facilities around San Diego County, and throughout Southern California, said Leighton Woodhouse of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
“It would be close to a miracle for it not to happen,” Woodhouse told City News Service.
Kaiser’s Point Loma Medical Offices will be most affected, with 52 employees not reporting to work, he said.
According to Woodhouse, the union and Kaiser disagree over staff levels and proposed cuts to health-care coverage and retirement benefits.
The company is in negotiations with three NUHW bargaining units, said Kaiser spokeswoman Mina Nguyen.
She said all facilities in San Diego County will operate normally and patients should keep their physicians appointments. However, routine nonemergency appointments to see social workers and psychologists may need to be rescheduled, she said.
Tuesday, the National Union of Healthcare Workers said: “2,500 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers throughout Southern California will go on strike for 24 hours. Our strike will be the single largest work action by NUHW members since the founding of our union. We’re telling the world the truth about Kaiser Permanente.”
Other unions were asking their members to respect picket lines at Kaiser facilities—even though NUHW said no picketing would occur in San Diego.
“If you have a non-urgent medical appointment scheduled during that 24-hour period, please consider rescheduling it,” wrote Jim Mahler, president of San Diego Local 1931 of the American Federation of Teachers. “Please honor the picket line of our brothers and sisters at Kaiser.”
Kimberly Tubbs, a registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente’s flagship Los Angeles Medical Center, wrote on the union website:
“It is AMAZING to me that Kaiser has been unwilling to reasonably discuss fair wages at the bargaining table. This month Kaiser reported $10 million per day in profits for the first quarter. This is the same company who wants to cut our pensions, reduce our benefits and not fairly compensate us!
Tubbs, a recovery room nurse, said she works eight-hour shifts on weekdays, and “it is my responsibility to care for patients who are coming right out of surgery as they are emerging from their anesthesia-induced sleep. This requires skilled training in Critical Care and Pediatrics. There are many complications that can arise after surgery, and as a ‘post-op’ nurse, I have to be skilled and prepared to handle any complication or emergency that comes up.
“Most days at work, I start to worry about IF I’m going to be able to leave on time around 3 in the afternoon, which is two hours before my shift ends. It is a regular occurrence that most of my fellow nurses and myself are required to stay past our shift because there isn’t anyone to take our patients.”
She argued that Kaiser can no longer claim financial hardship.
“They are surviving quite well through this economic hard times. In fact, I think they are THRIVING. Thriving to the tune of $10 million a day! I can’t really say that the nurses are thriving; in fact we’re barely surviving with the added workload and forced overtime.”
COMMENT
Ken Stone
4:39pm on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, building administrator Michelle Gibson said the Kaiser La Mesa primary care offices she oversees had seen no picketing, and nobody's scheduled appointment had to be canceled.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)