User Profile

Who Is That Masked Woman?

Recently, fellow bloggers have pointed out that changes in my screen name make it difficult to connect my comments to my blog. I'm also frequently confused with KaiserThrive.org. Here is a brief history of this blog and my various (Kaiser-related) screen names.

corphq: My LiveJournal account is called "corphq" because this blog started off in May 2004 as a personal diary where I made very general comments about the corporate workplace. You can find out who I am and how and why I turned toward focusing on Kaiser here (the Timeline is backdated to 2003 to keep it separate from the rest of my blog). The title of my blog was originally Corporate Ethics. Recently I changed the title to Kaiser Permanente - Corporate Ethics because people have been using Kaiser as a search term to find my blog, and my blog had never been optimized to appear in search results for Kaiser.

Diva of Disgruntled: I'm (ironically) a pretty shy and private person. When I began blogging about Kaiser, my tentative approach made it seem like I wasn't confident about the facts and my concerns weren't all that important. My good friend Kaiser Thrive encouraged me to adopt a bolder web identity and express myself in stronger terms. At the time this was a great idea - it worked.

However, once Kaiser started trying to frame me as a hacker to divert attention from the fact they had been publishing patient information on the web for four or five years, it was easy for them to use "Diva of Disgruntled" to stir up various negative stereotypes. Several law bloggers speculated on how this identity would play in a jury trial. Moreover, this screen name was a check my body couldn't cash. While I left it as the tagline on my blog throughout the whole Kaiser PR siege (since I didn't want to be bullied by Kaiser or look like I was trying to hide my past), I didn't use it at all as a screen name on forums or blog posts.

kaiser_scapegoat: This was the result of needing to hastily set up an email account to respond to media queries regarding Kaiser. I didn't have time to think through what a screen name I wanted to replace "Diva of Disgruntled". I did use scapegoat for an account I only used for a few months on Daily Kos in an attempt to stay consistent with my email address, though I didn't think of it as a screen name. My Daily Kos contributions don't generally deal with Kaiser, though, so I ultimately switched to a different non-Kaiser-related screen name there.

kaiserfraud: I named my LiveJournal Community kaiserfraud. I gave up on that pretty quickly because most of the people I wanted to help weren't interested in learning how to use LiveJournal. However, I registered for a Blogger account and some forums under "kaiserfraud" to lay the groundwork for eventually switching from "Diva of Disgruntled". When you see me using "kaiserfraud" now, it's usually because I'm using a comment system tied to these accounts.

gadfly: Matthew Holt started calling me "gadfly", presumably because he knew it did me no favors to perpetuate "Diva of Disgruntled". I like "gadfly", and it seems a more apt description than anything else. I mostly use "gadfly" when I identify myself in the context of my Kaiser criticisms now. The only drawback is that the name itself doesn't reveal that my blog focuses on Kaiser.

I think this covers most of the names I've used in the context of this blog, and I hope people will now find it easier to engage with me. I haven't previously been worried about my lack of fixed identity because, as Chinese bloggers have discovered, this puts you at the mercy of state and corporate power. However, my efforts to assist other Kaiser whistleblowers now require me to be more findable.

The evolution of my web presence is an amazing allegory for Kaiser's Electronic Medical Record (EMR), now called "HealthConnect". The original "corphq" blog is the underlying collection of legacy systems. "Diva of Disgruntled" is like the modules Kaiser bought from the EMR vendor - it dressed up my blog to make it look stronger and sexier. "Kaiserfraud" and "Scapegoat" express the shifting terms as the technology struggled to find its path: at various times called the AMR, the EHR, a vehicle for PHR, etc. "Gadfly" is like "HealthConnect" - the preferred brand name that unites everything else (but obscures the history as well).

I used to have a short manifesto against corporate lies and evidence tampering under my profile. While I've now replaced it with my screen name history, I'm leaving the "update" below that marked the moment this blog turned to the subject of Kaiser.

Update:
On June 17, Douglas Lynch, the "Chief Investigator" of the "Special Investigations Unit" left his business card on my porch. Since I was at home at the time, and Douglas Lynch did not bother to knock on the door, the sole purpose of this business card seems to be to intimidate me or imply that he is lurking around on my property and watching me.

I live in a converted garage in someone's backyard. My place can only be reached by going through a gate and crossing private property. Therefore this "investigator" illegally trespassed to leave his calling card in my personal space. Who knows what other illegal practices he might stoop to: I wouldn't be surprised if there were now cameras aimed at my windows and a tap on my phone.

Here is the information on the business card:

Douglas Lynch
Chief Investigator
Special Investigations Unit
Kaiser Permanente
1950 Franklin Street, 13th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 987-3005
Fax: (510) 873-5105

According to Kaiser convention, his email is probably Douglas.Lynch@kp.org

Anyone who wants to respond on my behalf is most welcome. Also, feel free to let Kaiser know that this is puerile, stupid behavior that fails to scare anyone and only serves as further evidence of corporate ineptitude.

Would you like to help me?
* Share/email the Kaiser parodies.
* Submit Kaiser complaints and evidence of Kaiser fraud to either myself or Kaiser Thrive.
* Don't let Kaiser draft you into becoming a Brand Ambassador through either employee pressure or viral marketing. If you believe that Kaiser management condones and commits unethical or fraudulent behavior, then consider becoming a Brand Buster: tell everyone you know what goes on behind closed doors at Kaiser.
* Link to my blog, the Kaiser Permanente: Toxic Organization web site, or any of the Kaiser Papers web sites. I'm also listed on Blogroll.

The RSS feed for my LiveJournal is http://corphq.livejournal.com/data/rss

Special thank you to the Intrepid Liberal for attempting to submit a Discovery request to Kaiser on my behalf.

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