I made it to the Heathcare Blogging Summit, and my panel went well. Kaiser had been approached about sending a representative to participate on the panel, but apparently I scared them away. :D
There is a lot of talk about transparency and relating to bloggers, but I still get the sense that the health care industry is mostly interested in how to control or discredit bloggers. Matthew Holt thought that some areas of Kaiser had started to tiptoe in the direction of transparency, but I haven't seen one iota of evidence of this. Kaiser continues to use the same tactics against Justen Deal that they did with me: attempting to depict him as a hacker, fabricating reasons to justify firing him, etc.
I was intrigued to find out that Kaiser is still retaining Edelman as one of their PR firms - confirmed by Rick Murray, President of Edelman's new social media practice Me2Revolution. I wonder if Kaiser's contract with Edelman is specifically to manage the response to Justen Deal, or whether its about asserting more control over the social media environment in general. Expect to see Kaiser's virtual headquarters hosting events in Second Life soon.
There has been a lot of Kaiser news over the last month that I haven't been able to keep up with. I'd like to nudge people who are interested in keeping up with patient advocacy issues to check out www.kaiserthrive.org. I will be writing a big catch-up post, too.
Authorities are investigating a medication error that led to the death of a baby at Kaiser's Santa Clara hospital. The article cites three medication error deaths at Kaiser Santa Clara since 2004 - this number seems low to me, so I'm wondering what Kaiser does to re-catagorize other deaths. Here's another article.
To give an example of how far Kaiser is willing to go, check out the case of Lehna Jordann Brewer, in which Kaiser pursues evidence manipulation and cover ups galore. Lehna's father recently spoke out about Kaiser's HealthConnect debacle - the L.A. Times article mentions problems caused by outages in the Neonatal ICU.
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In other news, Kaiser is dumping Martinez for the more upscale suburbs of Walnut Creek and Antioch. Kaiser's Modesto project is waiting on a full deployment of HealthConnect. That's going to be a loooong wait - lol. The California Deptartment of Managed Health Care still claims to be investigating the problems with Kaiser's EMR.
Kaiser Thrive has also posted a visual aid for Kaiser nepotism. Among the many complaints about Kaiser HR is they look the other way as high level managers hire their friends and family.
ROTFLMAO: For some unexplained reason, Kaiser has rejected my application for Culture Change Leader. :D
The police are investigating whether a Kaiser surgeon hastened a man's death to get his kidney. I don't even know what to say to that.
Kaiser whistleblower Justen Deal has published an article about patient safety at Kaiser in The News is Now Public. If you think these issues are important vote for the article on Digg here.
ROTFLMAO Update! Should I apply for this Kaiser job? Leave it to Kaiser to stomp on and priggishly ignore their critics while creating a new bureaucratic position to pretend like they're taking action. What Kaiser doesn't get is that Doing the Right Thing starts with...actually Doing the Right Thing. Further Update: Kaiser blocked and email-bounced my application for Culture Change Leader. Should I interpret this as Kaiser symbolically blocking culture change? :D
Here is the text from some recent Kaiser memos attempting to shape public perceptions of their EMR project. Is it possible to overdose on Koolaid? I'm not posting pdfs of the originals because I received them as text.
Important Announcement from George Halvorson, CEO Chief Information Officer (CIO) Appointment
February 26, 2007
I am pleased to announce that Philip (Phil) Fasano has joined Kaiser Permanente as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, effective immediately. As the leader of KP-IT, he will focus on the service, products and people essential to the success of KP’s technology agenda. Phil will be a member of the National Leadership Team and will report directly to me.
Sincere Thanks to Bruce Turkstra I want to thank Bruce Turkstra for his excellent leadership during his tenure as interim CIO. As you know, Bruce also did a wonderful job overseeing the KP HealthConnect roll-out and advancing our electronic health record to where it is today. His valued contributions throughout the KP HealthConnect project and during his recent work in IT are greatly appreciated. Bruce will be working with me to develop and execute a transition plan.
Phil Comes to KP With an Impressive Background Throughout his career, Phil has managed teams and organizations whose scope and complexity are very similar to our IT organization. His proven ability in a number of settings to interrelate system support and the overall strategy of the organization will be of great value to us. Kaiser Permanente will benefit from his business acumen, strategic approach and deep technical skills.
Phil has more than 20 years of corporate experience as a business leader and has successfully served as CIO for several companies including Deutsche Financial Services, JP Morgan Chase and Capital One. With each opportunity, he brought a transformational vision that was key to the evolution of the company’s business strategy and success.
Most recently, Phil was President and CEO of Capital Sourcing Group, Inc., in McLean, Virginia, where he provided advice, consulting and services to Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Phil received an M.B.A. from Long Island University, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology. He and his wife, Judy, have five children. They will relocate to the SF Bay area in the near future.
Please join me in welcoming Phil to KP, and in thanking Bruce for his strong performance. I am confident that we will all support Phil in our ongoing efforts to drive an effective technology agenda that enables optimal care for our members.
This is a broadly distributed message. Please do not reply. Please share this message broadly with your peers.
A message to KPSC managers and physician leaders from Benjamin K. Chu, MD, president KFHP/H, Southern California, and Jeffrey A. Weisz, MD, executive medical director, SCPMG
The February 15 edition of the Los Angeles Times reported on concerns with the implementation of our Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect TM system, and questioned its safety.
Many of you have wondered where the reporter from the L.A Times received his information. He interviewed numerous people within KP including CEO George Halvorson and other national leaders. We also hosted him for a full day at Baldwin Park Medical Center, where he spoke with two of our physicians closely involved with KP HealthConnect. He also talked with nurses and other staff, and we gave him unrestricted access to our hospital and clinics with KP HealthConnect. While many spoke candidly of some of the earlier challenges, nearly everyone commented on the benefits the system provides to enhance care for our members.
We know, and the article acknowledges, that Kaiser Permanente has already improved the care for our members because of KP HealthConnect. After mastering the system, the overwhelming majority of our doctors and nurses agree that KP HealthConnect has improved their ability to deliver the highest quality of care.
No comparable scale electronic health record has ever been deployed so rapidly. With a project this large and an organization as diverse as Kaiser Permanente, we have had to overcome our share of obstacles. For the first time, all eight of our regions are operating on a common technology platform through KP HealthConnect. A change of this magnitude required significant IT infrastructure upgrades, as well as a level of cross-regional collaboration that had not been required to date.
This conversion also has had a profound impact on the day-to-day work of our physicians, clinicians, and staff. More than moving from paper to electronic processes, we did extensive examinations of workflows and care practices to optimize the care our members receive throughout our system. This has required significant training and support.
We have always been forthcoming regarding the challenges we have faced and overcome, as well as the success. We expected these challenges in infrastructure, deployment, and adoption given the size and scope of our implementation and we are pleased with our progress to date.
We thank all employees and physicians whose tremendous work has advanced us to this point in our system’s implementation. Your efforts, professionalism, and results make the difference in our ability to deliver and meet our members’ and patients’ needs in the 21st century.
Because you may receive questions about the article from members, family and friends we have provided a brief overview and a link to a Q & A regarding questions about KP HealthConnect below.
Sincerely,
Benjamin K. Chu, MD, MHA Jeffrey A Weisz, MD President, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Hospitals Executive Medical Director, SCPMG
KP HealthConnect Facts
KP HealthConnect is Improving Care Delivery KP HealthConnect's built-in treatment guidelines are helping us improve the management of common/chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. We are also improving patient safety by increasing the accessibility of the patient medical record. Industry studies show that a paper medical record is missing up to 30 percent of the time for an office visit and paper medical records are almost never available for patient care in an emergency room. With KP HealthConnect, the electronic health record is available when and where it is needed.
Because KP HealthConnect includes more comprehensive patient information, it is helping caregivers address multiple problems or the provision of multiple services in a single visit. This reduces the need for additional follow-up appointments.
Our new online features, such as secure e-mail to your doctor’s office, will bring our members unprecedented access to Kaiser Permanente care.
By logging on to kp.org, members now have the ability to address some of their needs online, instead of coming in for an office visit or spending time playing phone tag. Preliminary surveys show high satisfaction with these opportunities to save both time.
System Availability is Close to Our Goal Our goal is to have KP HealthConnect available for use everywhere and every time it is needed to provide care and service to our members. Our goal for system availability is 99.7 percent. We currently average 99.2 percent and we are aggressively working to meet our ultimate availability goal.
We’re Continuing to Move Forward The world recognizes the KP HealthConnect project as a groundbreaking tool that will allow us to set ever higher standards of health care. The dedication of our many outstanding professionals who deploy, support, or use it every single day ensures that we will meet the challenges ahead of us, and distinguish Kaiser Permanente as the best place to receive quality and compassionate care.
For Answers to Additional Questions Go to the KP HealthConnect Web site for answers to additional questions.
How to Get Kaiser Permanente’s Side of the Story
Ever wish you could go online to get Kaiser Permanente’s side of the story when KP appears in the news? Kaiser Permanente’s Brand Strategy, Communications and Public Relations Department launched an external Web site accessible from KP.org on February 1 so that you can do just that.
The new Web site, KP News Center, highlights the latest news and commentary from across the Program and provides a channel for Kaiser Permanente leadership to tell KP’s side of stories that appear. For example, the feature story on the site today responds to an LA Timesnews article that describes KP’s electronic health record efforts.
The site is designed to inform audiences such as KP members and potential members, KP employees, legislators, purchasers and customers, and the media with facts and information. We are working to identify the best way to make the public aware of the news Web site.
The site also features stories on a variety of topics including Health Research, KP HealthConnect™, Community Benefit and Clinical Excellence. In addition to our own news features, the site includes links to other news sources, health resources on KP.org and Kaiser Permanente podcasts. Readers can also subscribe to news and receive regular updates through an RSS feed. Bookmark it now: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/index.html
Please be sure to check this site regularly for ongoing updates and information.
Holy cats - I look away five seconds and Kaiser accelerates its bad karma spree! First of all I'm going to direct everyone to Kaiser Thrive to read excerpts from articles that require registration, and I will link to the Kaiser Thrive posts in appreciation of all the work they do.
First, the L.A. Times reports that five Kaiser hospitals are deadly for people with pneumonia. Not exactly a surprise, but I'm glad the L.A. Times is continuing to buck the Kaiser-payola situation in California.
Second, Bruce Turkstra got dumped from the interim CIO position. The scuttle is that Turkstra made a number of changes based on the expectation he would keep the job, so I'm sure mucho membership $$$ were dedicated to his golden parachute/bribe.
Here's yet another Kaiser employee telling it like it is. I'm still waiting for a sign that Kaiser is actually getting the message. What Kaiser does to its own employees is unacceptable, and this mistreatment trickles down to sabotage patient care. Moreover Kaiser's practice of destroying evidence and choosing to manipulate perceptions over fixing the problem effects both employees and patients. It's a cultural problem, and this tone is being set by Halvorson and his team. UPDATE: The HealthConnect Corruption Scandal seems to be on fire!
In support of the letter posted by the Kaiser employee, I heard similar sentiments expressed about the situation from a completely different source. I think the abusive managers are going to have a tough time talking their way out of this one. And, once again, SHAME ON KAISER HR, for letting this sort of thing go on and for punishing the employees who try to seek help.
Congratulations to Justen Deal for being named Health Care IT's 2006 Industry Figure of the Year by the Hissies! ROTFLMAO!!!
BizJournals ran an article on Kaiser's blogging strategy. Or anti-blogging strategy: it's just more gross attempts to manipulate the media. The article covers how Kaiser chickened out of the Health Care Blogging Summit once it found out critics would be on the same stage. The conference organizer pointed out that this is part of Kaiser's larger transparency problem.
I need a breather, but if there's recent Kaiser stupidacity that I missed, please post a comment, and I'll be happy to add it here.
Update: I almost forgot the funniest thing of all! Some Northern California Kaiser employee tried to hack into Kaiser Thrive yesterday! How lame! But also ROTFLMAO because the attempt is pretty bad.
Update2: Wow, my blog is under visitor seige right now! Hi to all newcomers. If anyone is so inclined, I'm trying to raise money so I can represent patient advocates at the Health Care Blogging Summit in April. You can chip in here. This blog has no advertising or sponsorship, and I don't work regularly myself (thanks to Kaiser). I would appreciate any help.
Kaiser leadership recently distributed a memo on ethics to their organization, which you can read here. Since Kaiser hasn't taking any action whatsoever to address the incidents where people have suffered because of their ethical malfeasance, this memo is just blowing a lot of smoke. The disturbing part, though, is that memo tells employees they have a duty to report ethics violations. However, anyone who works for Kaiser knows that HR has a mandate to back managers under any circumstance, so managers will preemptively move to fire or otherwise retaliate against employees who even hint that there's an ethics problem. Kaiser needs to fix the HR problem first before ordering rank-and-file employees to put their jobs on the line.
In other news, the Labor Panel went very well, and hopefully whatever aired on local TV will soon be available online. I met Justen Deal for the first time in person, and we compared notes on our experiences. I still have hope that Kaiser will review the stance they took toward him, because putting him on unpaid leave for months for a well-intended criticism just makes them look like jerks who put political kowtowing before the good of anyone else - including patients as well as employees.
I have been invited to participate in a panel for the Healthcare Blogging Summit. This summit has brought to light the way corporate interests infiltrate and dominate the public voice - thus silencing, isolating, and delegitimizing critics. Corporate bloggers are paid: they are funded to attend conferences, and when they serve on panels they become known as "professionals" to be taken seriously. There are even corporate sponsorships for people attending the conference, so the HMO and Insurance industries actually *become* the blogosphere. Many corporate critics don't even have ads to support their blogs: everything they do is on their own time and out of their own pocket.
I was honored to be invited to be on a panel of the Healthcare Blogging Summit, and I hope my one determined voice won't be utterly swamped by the sea of corporate stooges. Interested parties can show their support in part by recognizing how some of the rising professional bloggers are being subsidized by corporate interests.
Lastly, somehow I missed that David Merlin settled his lawsuit against Kaiser last month. I'm sure there's a gag order involved, so this is a real loss to the public's right to know about what really happened during the kidney transplant scandal. :-(
Update: At the suggestion of a community participant below, I've set a ChipIn account to raise money for the Healthcare Blogging Summit. For anyone who makes a donation, thanks in advance for your support and please feel free to email me if you need help with a Kaiser-related problem.
Kaiser Thrive pointed out that Kaiser has lost its good standing with UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) for "effectively denied patient access to kidney transplantation and threatened safety for patients on its waiting list." The L.A. Times article quotes Dr. Sue V. McDiarmid, president of UNOS:
At the time [of heavy press coverage], a top official of the HMO publicly apologized for the problems. But during the closed-door hearing Wednesday, Kaiser representatives struck a different tone...."I wouldn't characterize their position to us as acknowledging major errors," McDiarmid said. At times, she said, Kaiser officials actually denied that there had been serious lapses.
Over the last week I've toured the health care blogosphere to express my concerns about the recent Healthcare Blogging Summit. My chief concern was that the Summit reinforced the credibility of PR bloggers and other professionals (physicians, lawyers, consultants, etc.) who already enjoy the advantage of being backed by corporate resources and favored by the mainstream media - while helping to further marginalize and suppress bloggers who are trying to criticize corporate heavyweights. The focus of blog-inclusive news aggregators like Memeorandum and Tailrank on A-List blogs has further served to magnify the blogs blessed by the business world while reducing the potential of the blogosphere as a whole of serving as a vehicle for alternative points of view.
To my surprise, several of the organizers of the Healthcare Blogging Summit responded to my concerns thoughtfully, and they had actually hoped for more representation of alternative and critical viewpoints on the panels. One organizer, Fard Johnmar, interviewed me.
Fard also points out Kaiser's recent foray into "blogger relations":
Kaiser is very interested in working with bloggers and may even deploy its own public facing blog in the future. As a result, they are very interested in working with bloggers to communicate their position on the Deal e-mail and other issues.
Kaiser employees have also been attending blogging and social media conferences. This is part of my complaint: Kaiser is trying to hijack the platform for communication and block or swamp criticism instead of addressing it. Kaiser can throw money and hordes of employees at this endeavor: the people with the technical skills and willingness to put in herculean amounts of unpaid work to hold onto a place for alternative points of view are very, very few. Kaiser already gets to push their story through canned news. They should leave the blogosphere alone.
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In other news, Matthew Holt has started to cover Kaiser's health care plan for California. Strangely, this is not the money-grubbing plan that Kaiser CEO Halvorson proposed last month in his capacity as chairman of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Perhaps it's more geared to reinforce the proposal that Don Perata, the Dem leader of the CA Senate who also represents Oakland (re: Kaiser's HQ). Honestly, I can't tell from either article. Maybe everyone is just trying to get on the health care bandwagon, and speed of soundbyte is more important than actually making sense.
The rise of social media has been a powerful tool for whistleblowers. One video on YouTube can be heard around the world, getting the concerns of the whistleblower out before corporate PR departments can shape public perceptions. This means the public is in an unprecedented position to help whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers make a terrible sacrifice when they take their concerns public. While corporations have the PR and legal resources to punish whistleblowers for stepping out of line, the public rarely steps up to protect whistleblowers because they have mixed feelings about anything that shakes the status quo.
Whistleblowers internalize the public ambivalence: I, for one, never promoted this blog for my own case - it was mainly just here for interested parties, and it gave me a way to respond when the mainstream media was propagating Kaiser PR. However, for the sake of another Kaiser whistleblower, I've made more of an effort recently. As part of that effort, I thought it might help to be explicit about what readers of this blog can do to help.
First, here's WHY you should help:
1) Are you against letting corporations destroy, re-arrange, and manufacture evidence to "manage" a favorable outcome to a situation? 2) Do you believe that whistleblowers should be able to rely on basic protections from corporate retaliation? 3) Do you want government oversight agencies to expedite acting on whistleblower complaints, quickly apply whistleblower protections, and remedy any initial mistakes they made that harmed the whistleblower? 4) Do you think whistleblowers should be able to freely express their concerns without needing a lawyer? 5) Do you believe the media should report on matters of public concern instead of helping corporate PR abuse or frame whistleblowers? 6) Do you believe the media should rapidly correct of matters of fact, even if the whistleblower is a person of no power or influence? 7) Do you want to prevent corporations from intimidating whistleblowers through filing fake lawsuits?
Now here are seven tips on HOW you can help:
1) For my own case, I posted a list of people to contact. This same list can be used to help other whistleblowers in California, and I welcome suggestions about what I should add to it. Contact political representatives to make sure they quickly activate the appropriate whistleblower protection measures (and, more importantly, so they know that the public doesn't want them to villify the whistleblower: otherwise political representatives go with how the media is reporting it). Contact the media so they will know the readers are interested in exposing corporate shenanigans more than slamming the whistleblower.
2) If you have a web site or blog, it helps to blogroll and/or link to sources that offer the whistleblower's point of view. This is especially important if the mainstream media is already being dominated by corporate PR. For all the skepticism about the media in general, bloggers often rely on rehashing mainstream media content: that means they can easily end up as vehicles for corporate PR. A couple of weeks ago I caught a prominent blogger rehearsing falsehoods about Justen Deal. It took several comments to get her to consider where her assumptions had come from. This week she's on a panel of a blogger's conference, acting as an expert on blogger credibility and influence. But her sort of "credibility" is based on shunning independent blogs like mine in favor of citing mainstream media sources: i.e., her credibility is derived from the *reputation* of the mainstream media, not any gauge of the truth.
3) Of course if you're a blogger, it would really help if you blogged on the whistleblower's story. You might even be able to get an interview with the whistleblower. Do a podcast. See if you can get video.
4) If you don't own a blog, but you comment on them, you can help by offering a counterpoint every time you see a gross error in how a blogger has represented the whistleblower's situation or wherever you see comments obviously planted by corporate PR. I'm pretty good at tracking these, but I'm not omnipotent and I don't have the resources that corporate PR departments do. Justen at least has me - no one was there to help me with this when I was under Kaiser siege.
5) If you participate in social networking or social media sites where you can share blogs, news stories, and links, post the whistleblower's story. If there's video or podcast, post those on YouTube, etc. If the whistleblower has a podcast or video, add it to your public playlists. If you know of some forum frequented by people with the professional skills/resources to advocate for someone going up against a big corporation, point them to the whistleblower's story.
6) If you're a recruiter, HR representative, or hiring manager, you can take action to counter the public belief that whistleblowers will never be hired again. Corporations are only able to use that as a threat against whistleblowers because HR gurus have been harping on the dangers of digital dirt when they could be promising people that there's *nothing* corporate "issues managers" can do to destroy their chances for future employment. How about vowing not to Google prospective employees? How about making a public statement to the effect that you welcome job applications from people of integrity, including whistleblowers? At the very least, don't perpetuate the intimidation of whistleblowers through your own actions. Don't, for instance, decline hiring someone right after visiting their blog, lie about the reason, and then visit their blog several times a day every day thereafter (which not only emphasizes the role you've played in punishing whistleblowers, it shows you're a hypocrite since you actually love what they're doing).
7) Some people compulsively rip on whistleblowers without even reading their point of view. If the whistleblower has a blog or web site, please at least read what they have to say before tearing into them. Whistleblowers who have taken their concerns public are also often willing to answer questions, too. Try to avoid making assumptions based on whistleblower stereotypes: whistleblowers are individuals, with a variety of reasons for taking their problem public. Remember, a whistleblower who has gone public needs your help. Right now, the whistleblower experience is like crying "Rape" near a busy street - and then watching everyone cross the street away from you in order to gossip about your character and scalp tickets.
Many of the people who read this blog are filled with good will, and I hope at least some of you will be willing to convert that good will into action.
Over the past few weeks I've been wondering just how far Kaiser went in coordinating the response to FixKP.org. Now I have my answer: pretty damned far. The memo below is currently being distributed to a wide swathe of Kaiser employees:
Diane Gage-Lofgren/PO/KAIPERM
11/24/2006 04:38 PM
To Top 400 Execs-IREG cc
Subject KP HealthConnect Q&A Document for Your Use
Dear Colleagues:
Over the past several weeks, the internal and external relations team has prepared a number of documents about KP HealthConnect for both internal and external audiences. I wanted to share the attached question and answer list with you to facilitate discussions you may be having with employees. It addresses the choice of Epic as our vendor, where we are in the implementation process and what challenges we have found along the way. Please let me know if you have needs for other communications.
Sincerely,
Diane
Diane Gage Lofgren SVP, Brand Strategy, Communications & Public Relations Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. One Kaiser Plaza, 26th Floor Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 267-2951 (Office) (510) 267-2118 (Fax)
I'm still thinking about whether to post Kaiser's talking points memos. On the one hand people should know that Kaiser is scripting employee remarks about HealthConnect (including renewing their attack on Justen). On the other hand, I don't want to have any hand in spreading the Kaiser koolaid.
Note this memo was originally written for the "Top 400" execs over two weeks ago. All the official communications from Kaiser have been governed by this memo.
Update: HISTalk received this curious comment from someone at Kaiser:
In the early days we heard a lot about the personal relationship between Halvorson and the head of Epic; how he mentored her when she was a student at the University he served at and how he assisted when she was starting Epic.
Like HISTalk, I've never heard this claim made before. Unlike HISTalk, I think it would be a significant discovery which would demand a re-evaluation of all Halvorson's "business decisions" in regard to Epic.
Funny: Here's a Kaiser gripe that says a little something about the state of Kaiser's "information technology".
The first thing I saw in the news this morning was an Oakland Tribune article about Kaiser's use of farmers markets (with the brand keyword "Thrive" in the title). While the article seems to be written by a staff writer, I'm wondering whether this is a case of paid editorial content. The first clue is that the farmer's market thing isn't news. There was a Kaiser-lauding article about this in the Oakland Business Review last year which was rehashed in Newsweek in September (which got some seemingly spontaneous positive blog coverage as well).
While it's possible that the Oakland Tribune is just late in hopping on the bandwagon, what makes me suspicious is that the Tribune hasn't run any stories on the whistleblower email or the resignation of Cliff Dodd or Kaiser's EMR problems. Why would they shun the major story only to recycle an old feel-good piece about farmer's markets? I'm wondering whether a Kaiser PR stooge remembered the farmers market story as Kaiser's most positive coverage in recent memory, and he or she just picked up the phone to their connection at the Oakland Tribune...which would be almost as sleazy as directly paying for the editorial.
The Oakland Tribune isn't the only newspaper in the Bay Area that coddles Kaiser. Just a few months ago I complained that the Mercury News had let a San Jose opinion piece slip into the rest of their network as regular news. I've also seen what looks suspiciously like Kaiser video news releases on NBC local news.
This is harmful on two levels. First, this is effectively a lobbying campaign (seeking the political support of the public) where alternative viewpoints don't get equal time. In my previous post, I pointed out that Kaiser had been using Google ads to "amplify" their message. Despite their "don't be evil" policy, Google only allows that amplification to paying customers: there is no equal time for Public Service Announcements. Second, just think of the *real* stories, for instance a truly desperate situation where some person needed the ear of the public, that got bumped out of that space just because it happened to some nobody without a speed-dial connection to various media contacts.
Does anybody know how to follow up on this? Are newspapers required to publicly report paid content?
Update: Tyler Chin of AMNews has apparently attempted to cover the Kaiser email controversy without actually interviewing Justen. Factual errors abound - for instance, Justen didn't work for the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, he worked for the Southern CA medical group. On the other hand, I'd strongly advise Justen against talking to Tyler Chin. I agreed to answer Tyler's questions, and several months later I found an online conversation where he sneered at me for wanting some defense against against the wholesale violation of my rights based solely on the *fear* of hackers. There really ought to be some sort of flag list to warn whistleblowers which reporters hate them.
Is This the Problem With Kaiser? According to this article, senior physicians have a vested interest in forcing their subordinates to "accept" the system, no matter how bad it is. Someone should encourage this Miller guy to "accept" that rank is not omnipotence - especially if rank is being abused on a widespread scale. Anyway, this reminded me of Kaiser's ongoing refusal to fix their mistakes in favor of hiring PR firms like Edelman, Digital Impact, Buzzlogic, etc. to evangelize their brand.
Oops, Kaiser released the patient data of another 38,000 people out into the wild! This isn't Kaiser's first laptop incident. In July Kaiser informed 160,000 people that their data was on the loose. Who knows how many times this happened before the HIPAA-enforcers started obliging Kaiser to come clean. Interested parties can find my archive of Kaiser privacy incidents here.
KaiserPapers has a new patient horror story that shows why Kaiser only faces a fraction of the arbitrations/lawsuits it should. Note that Kaiser would have charged the poor woman $3000.00 just for a photocopy of her husband's medical records.
LOL Redux! It's no coincidence that a Kaiser employee is featured in this career success article... which ends with the wink wink nudge nudge advice to only relay "sensitive" info by phone (where no one can prove anything). If only half of Kaiser's HR execs are giving advice like this, it may be yet another clue about why Kaiser is so screwed up.
Yet Another LOL! Check out this hilarious Stepford-Kaiser job description: Ensure that all communications collateral is edited to increase brand awareness of and interest in Kaiser Permanente... (Here's the source.) Don't get me started on the irony that this tortuous clump of weasel-wordery is for a "communications" job.
Missing the Obvious: The Mercury Times just posted an article about the end of the HMO advantage implied by rising health care premiums that are now outpacing the rest of the country. The article seems baffled about the cause. I guess the reporters have totally missed years of HMOs passing on out-of-control IT costs and massive bureaucratic waste to consumers. Kaiser has specifically mentioned "IT investment" as its justification for raising rates in Hawaii. It seems to me that someone at the Mercury Times, or Kaiser someone influencing the Mercury Times, just wants to blame "consumer backlash against HMOs" and thus create public pressure to discourage criticism of HMOs.
Wow! Kaiser could really pick up a few tips from Computerworld. Editorialist Frank Hayes has offered an honest, insightful apology to Justen for lumping him in with the Kaisercrats. I have to admit I'm envious - I couldn't even get major newspapers like the SF Chronicle to make *corrections of fact* when I was under Kaiser-siege.
Kaiser Still Using Justen's Name for Their PR! The Kaiser "Sponsored Link" is back on Google:
The Northern California chapter of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) has rushed to throw together an event (re: PR-blaster) about the "challenges" of deploying an EMR. The participants are a representative of Kaiser (Kate Christensen, who used to appear as a spokesmodel on Kaiser TV commercials before the Thrive campaign), Matthew Holt (consultant with a prominent health care blog, favorably disposed toward both Kaiser and the EMR), and the chair of the HIMSS Personal Health Record (i.e., EMR) committee. What a disgusting, one-sided, utterly staged, PR-mongering, FAUX EVENT! (And I can't believe Matthew is supporting this - this is basically letting Kaiser collar him as their preferred tame blogger.)
Update: Apart from the issue of whether this HIMSS event is a PR bonus for Kaiser or not, glancing through Matthew's blog reminded me of how decent he was to give me the benefit of the doubt during the whole Systems Diagrams Affair. I'm grateful for that, and I continue to respect Matthew's opinion on many health care issues. Thus, I certainly apologize for impugning his integrity in regard to the HIMSS event. I do remain concerned about the event itself - because even if it was planned long in advance, it seems to be an unfair opportunity for Kaiser to attract press to its version of the EMR story without any dissenters or challengers in the room.
I just received a curious email that suggests Justen couldn't have broken the broadcast-email-only-for-Halvorson rule. I was asked to retract the quote because the sender feared being identified. The gist is that Lotus Notes is set up so only authorized users can send mass emails with the "send-all" function. This means Justen's email could only have been distributed by the original recipients copying and forwarding it.
If this is the case, then Justen is *only* on administrative leave for putting his concerns about Kaiser in writing.
Ps. Also, if "send-all" is the broadcast email function that everyone is talking about, then this Ethics Memo proves it wasn't only for Halvorson.
On a karma-related note, Hewlett-Packard's Ethics Chief is facing felony charges for his role in the HP spying scandal. Update: Holy cats, it looks like Kaiser's own Chief Compliance Officer Daniel P. Garcia has been involved in some shifty shenanigans himself. I don't understand why Kaiser has been inserting all these cronycrats at the top of the organizational stack in the first place...but "Chief Compliance Officer"??? This potential for wrongdoing to cascade from the top makes it all the more important that Kaiser take strong steps to protect criticism and principled dissent at the bottom.
Sexy Second Life avatar in Kaiser Thieves T-Shirt:
Update 2: I think this op-ed argues that businesses need smart people to handle IT, but business processes haven't adapted to smart people. The problem is those darned smart people need to maintain their integrity in order to keep the rest of their brainy-logic functioning properly. ;-)
Huh. If there is anyone out there with some insight on Kaiser's IT accounting, could you explain to me what this IRS rule means for the financial relationship between Kaiser's Health Plan (the umbrella not-for-profit) and the for-profit medical groups like TPMG?
ROTFLMAO! According to this interview, Kaiser is "very interested in social media" and sending out the PR minions to "blogging events". Expect to see a barrage of KaiserTurf™ in the near future.
From my correspondence (permission granted to post):
I've been reviewing the PR financial statements at the Kaiser site for quarterly statements trying to find the $7 billion Justen referred to in his letter. The four year project, starting in 2002, was suppose to cost $3 billion so Kaiser must have spent at least the whole budget PLUS already and expecting two more years to finish the project. But reading the financial PR's, I can't find it! What a mess!! Not only can Kaiser not remember what they stated last year in their YOY references accurately (compare Q2 2004 and Q4 2004 PR's), the numbers don't add up YTD for what they do print. It is interesting what they choose to omit from time to time too. Kaiser started leaving off their operating income quote beginning Q4 2005. But doing the math - their operating revenue per member has gone from $2,402 to $4,012 = 40% increase when the membership base only increased by 3%. These increases in just the past FIVE years (2001 - 2006). Employers and patients are paying for this! Wake up! I doubt this is the 'bend the trend' Halverson wants changed though. Kaiser never reports operating expenses and this is where continued mis-perception and lies to the public regarding just how much HealthConnet is costing. All those other hospital execs go to California for a site visit and are so impressed (mislead) on the costs and 'happiness' of the clinicians. The ability to cope with HealthConnect is directly reflected in their evaluations and pay. 'Let's reward dishonesty with more money because they are cheerleaders to our business objectives and obligations to the Vendor. Tell the truth and you are fired.'(or put on administrative leave). Amazing so many healthcare providers are willing to choose dishonesty for their own gain. It is sad and it is also a direct reflection of what this corporate culture pays as reward.
In the financial PR's, Kaiser only claims capital, which would be hardware, to be later depreciated. I'm guessing their payments are due to EPIC in Q4 by the trend and fits with the expectation to be bleeding again this upcoming quarter prompting Halvorson's bend the trend letter. How in the world would Halvorson be concerned when the revenue per patient is so darn high and they are averaging 8.6 billion in revenue per quarter so far in 2006?! Just how much is this system really costing patients? Capital expenses usually exclude operational (human) expenses towards the project. What is the truth regarding the expenses of this project? NO ONE will ever know because there is no public accountability to the truth with EPIC or Kaiser.
I went to the EPIC website to see if they have any PR's related to finances - just how much is Kaiser really sending to EPIC? Nope, absolutely nothing there. They don't have to disclose because EPIC is a privately held company too. Kaiser and Epic compare themselves to the UK and Cerner all the time. You can't compare what you can't see. At least in the UK, complete financial statements exists on both sides of the curtain for their project. In the U.S., it is an employers choice though where to send your employees for healthcare services. Annual premium increases sent only to the pockets of Kaiser's profits is really a choice employers have to offer to their own bottomline. Since enrollment is up only 3% in five years, at least it looks like some employers have noticed the lack of quality and financial waste and taken their business elsewhere. Those deep pockets at Kaiser are fattened by patients and employers! Wake up!
Methinks I see a big, big audit on the horizon. If not a RICO investigation.
Also, this reminded me of how Kaiser was juggling around below-the-line and above-the-line expenses during the IT change of regime in 2002. The Director of our department gave everyone the mission to "educate" all the new folk about "how things are done at Kaiser." My first thought was: "Tax fraud is the way things are done at Kaiser...?"
Update: In light of Matthew Holt's interview with Andy Wiesenthal (bigwig of the Permanente Federation), I thought I should post a couple of the Kaiser email policies I have (here's the relevant podcast clip). Neither was ever given to me by HR or pointed out by my manager. I just found them while exploring Kaiser's Intranet (note one is for Colorado). Let me underscore I really had to look hard for these. Both these policies focus on destroying email so it can't be used as evidence - there's nothing in there about a "Halvorson-only" broadcast email function. People are advised to convey "controversial information" face-to-face - but that amounts to a policy of hiding evidence of dissent. Note the first policy actually uses the legal term "discoverable". Well, you can read the policies yourself: Email Policy #1 and Email Policy #2.
Ken Hamidi's victory over Intel also might turn out to be relevant to Justen's situation. The Court advised that Intel "assert a property interest in its employees' time." I.e., the only thing Justen can be accused of is ignoring a policy...that doesn't seem to have been written down or distributed.
Ps. Here's another interesting soundbyte. Wiesenthal thinks over a hundred "doctors, nurses, and pharmacists" were in unanimous agreement that Kaiser should move to Epic. I'm curious to know if this is true since the CTO of TPMG was in the dark in December 2002 - he only knew that Halvorson was trying to decide between Cerner and Epic. It was all about Halvorson, not some big committee. Elsewhere in the interview, Wiesenthal denies Tanning (the consulting company where ex-CIO Cliff Dodd was a Director) had anything to do with the selection process. Dodd did, however, choose Tanning for an earlier experiment in scaling up one of the regional implementations of Epic.
Non-update: I'm in the mood for some Kaiser Splat.
I've recently been trying to help a woman who was abandoned by her attorney during one of Kaiser's notorious forced arbitrations right before she was to give her deposition. A little while back I mentioned how the Kaiser lawyer tried to take advantage of the situation and originally wouldn't let her reschedule, which almost led to tragedy. Kaiser also refrained from paying the bill from the UCLA hospital where the woman's husband died: Kaiser transferred the patient (without telling his wife or asking her consent) right before he died. I don't want to go into Kaiser's various motives for that because the Arbitration is still pending.
This woman is STILL looking for a lawyer and trying to resist Kaiser's Motion for Summary Judgment all by herself, but no one wants to get involved in the middle of a big case. And the Kaiser lawyer is STILL trying to bully her. Here's how he responded to the medical opinion she got from Dr. Charles Phillips (one of the few doctors with Kaiser experience who will help people in these kinds of situations):
From: Bruce Miller To: (Kaiser Victim) Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 18:36:19 -0800 Subject: RE: Declaration coming from Dr.Phillips Dr. Philips makes a career out of acting as an expert against Kaiser, ever since his employment ended there. I am in the process of collecting documents about him from around the country, to submit as a reply.
First, Dr. Phillips was addressing age discrimination (he filed a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which was either won or settled in his favor) and pill-splitting before his contract with Kaiser lapsed. Second, this email is just creepy! One has to wonder if some private investigator has been hired to comb through Dr. Phillips' phone records or even to lurk outside his house.
If there are any reporters who are interested in covering this story, I'd be glad to put you in touch with the relevant parties. kaiser_scapegoat (at) hotmail.
Ps. For those of you who need your Kaiser EMR Debacle fix, there are more great insider comments at HISTalk.
While we're waiting for Halvorson's bullsh*t to hit the fan this morning, the L.A. city attorney is quietly suing Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower Medical Center (and nine other hospitals) for patient dumping.
Excerpt: DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2002 Tanning Technology Corporation (Nasdaq:TANN), a global IT systems integrator and solutions provider, today announced that Cliff Dodd, Chief Information Officer of managed care provider Kaiser Permanente, and member of Tanning's Board of Directors, was resigning from Tanning's Board.
Hmmmm, Anon E. Mouse references an SEC filing that, "In April 2002 the Company (Tanning) began providing IT services for Kaiser."
Mr. Dodd resigned a bit late, don't ya think?
****
John C Dodd changed his name, or at least what he was called, shortly after coming to Kaiser. I remember that well due to his perceived conflict of interest when signing the HCL contracts. Maybe at his next job he'll be Jack C Dodd. Oh what tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive......
Also, just for the heck of it:
Funny Update: Someone in Plano, Texas knows that Kaiser is in a "mess"!
8th November 2006 12:43:37 /G:/FREQ ACCESS/EPRO RESEARCH/EMR VENDOR/EPICCARE/KAISER MESS/kaiser user hates epic 110706.htm
8th November 2006 11:02:58 /G:/FREQ ACCESS/EPRO RESEARCH/EMR VENDOR/EPICCARE/KAISER MESS/HealthConnect - Kaiser Swindling Congress.htm
I think this might be from Perot Systems. While the above visits were conducted via WiFi, I get visits from Plano on a regular basis, and I've traced them back to Perot Systems before.
Kaiser Belt-Tightening: Here's the September talking points memo to help Kaiser managers lower employee expectations. From Cliff Dodd's site on KP's Intranet.
The "limit color copies" idea made me laugh outloud because abuse of the color copier was a serious problem in The Technology Group.
Vive la France: Will the fall of Dodd ultimately turn out to be more memorable than the fall of Rumsfeld? There's also another French (Canadian) blog that comments on the 60,000 down hours in October. This made me wonder whether the estimation of down hours includes the time the system *seemed* to be still down because the health care provider didn't refresh...
Finally! Finally there's a decent interview of Justen. And note he's *still* a pompom-waving Kaiser cheerleader. Also note senior PR flak Lassiter still trying to wallpaper the Kaiser Message over reality. "Just one individual's opinion"? Puh-lease...try reading a blog, any blog on this situation!
Today Kaiser CEO George Halvorson sent his own freaking long blast email to respond to Justen's concerns. After dismissing Justen as a young pup who hasn't been at Kaiser very long (note Halvorson was hired in 2002), Halvorson then minces and picks and wiggles his way through a response that boils down to "you're just going to have to believe we did due diligence and here's the talking points for HealthConnect."
For those who like to torture themselves by reading the lame excuses of CEOs, here's the blather.
My favorite part was where Halvorson confirmed that Kaiser mainly wanted a billing system with more teeth:
We very much need the EPIC functionality. The billing system alone is crucial to our operational survival, as people actually involved in our billing process know. Our old home-grown CIS system simply did not have that needed functionality.
Woo hoo - I've been totally vindicated!!!
At least Halvorson didn't stick the trademark symbol beside HealthConnect like the PR weenie who sent out the response to Justen (link in my previous post).
Update: Justen has been placed on "administrative leave"! Kaiser hasn't learned anything!!! Article here.
"What I'm doing is working to ensure the waste and abuse stops," said Deal, who lives in Los Angeles. "That's not something you get fired for."
Hmmm - obviously Justen hasn't yet realized that Kaiser doesn't need a reason - they'll just make something up to put on the documentation, count on HR to destroy the evidence in the event of a dispute, and deploy their Issues Management hacks to smear his name in public until he will never be able to work anywhere else again. And if that doesn't work, they might try framing him: hey, wasn't Justen standing awfully close to that $7 billion dollar deficit? Kaiser could just trick a state agency into decrying Justen and rely on NBC to re-arrange interview clips to make Justen look like he took that $7 billion himself. After all, KAISER GOT AWAY WITH IT BEFORE.
And another thing: The October 6 incident described a couple posts down wasn't caused by any power outage. It was caused by human error: a test server was pointed to production. DO SOME RESEARCH VICTORIA COLLIVER.
Amusing side note: Epic consultants apparently don't think to highly of their Kaiser partners. Update: Apparently the guy has modified his blog - I'm working on getting a copy of the original up now. Here it is: In the original post the Epic guy just says he did a job at Baldwin Park Medical Center and the "support staff" had a "remarkably poorer work ethic than Epic employees." He also added the bit about it all being the best for patient care.
Also, Epic seems to be garnering a reputation as an interminable money-suck. Were these implementations included in Kaiser's "inclusive review"? Update: Someone just reminded me that former Kaiser CA President Dick "under investigation" Pettingill imposed Epic on his new CEO gig at Allina. I keep seeing rumors that the Allina EMR is over-budget and under-working, but no mainstream media coverage. If anyone actually knows anything about this, please let me know.
Kaiser chatter: The HISTalk blog is getting some response from Kaiser employees. Check it out here and here. Update: The HisTalk blog has an excellent set of highlights on the home page of his blog. There's a note that Kaiser attempted to disappear Justen's email - but once more their slime tactics were foiled by the wonderful capacity of the grassroots to get the truth out. Also, there's more backup for Justen's claim that Epic doesn't scale. I've seen several weighty remarks on this, and I have a feeling Justen heard it quite a few times from the IT boots on the ground before he put it in his email.
There's also some chatter at Kaiser Thrive. She has also posted a link to the full text of Justen's email. I've never posted that here because I knew that Justen had just bought a world of hurt, and I didn't want to do anything to add to it. However, now several other blogs have posted it, so I guess that cat's out of the bag.
Can anyone confirm the rumor that Kaiser CIO Cliff "Swirl" Dodd resigned tonight?
I think a choir of angels just broke into song...
Update: Powerful comment left on my previous post:
As an employee at the only Northern California Kaiser that has gone live in the inpatient setting. The Health Connect outages now called "code white" are dangerous to patient care. The Key is that THERE IS NO BACKUP. When the system is down, RNs cannot lookup key information like vitals, lab work, medication orders. THERE IS NOTHING ON PAPER. We may not know what Mrs. Jones last blood pressure was, or when or what her next medication is due. This is scary!!!
I wonder if Andy Wiesenthal mentioned this when he was buttering up the Ways and Means Committee last year and trying to resell HealthConnect (the EMR) to the Federal govt.
Important Update: The Dodd resignation seems to be confirmed. For those interested, here's the memo, as well as Kaiser's first salvo against Justen (at least they sicced their lamest "Issues Management" expert on him - Schiffgens, ROTFLMAOBBQ!!!).
Ps. I have to point out the hypocrisy of responding to Justen's "email-clogging" broadcast email with another broadcast email. Obviously only Kaiser's "Issue Managers" are allowed to clog everyone's email. :-)
I actually predicted this would happen the day Halvorson announced that they were going to buy their EMR (Electronic Medical Record) from Epic. Kaiser is now in the vendor's pocket, and their whole organization is tangled with project managers and "communications issues". The real tragedy is that many, many, many people saw this coming three years ago.
Update: Yeah, I'm suuuure this was a totally unbiased study upholding Kaiser's desire to extract cash up front, while you're still bleeding on the floor of the ER. And let's not forget that the first module (and for a while the only module) of the EMR that Kaiser installed was the billing system. It's all money-grubbing all the time with these people!
Update 2: Someone just asked me how Halvorson's claim of the upcoming $7 billion in losses jives with Kaiser's 2005 end-of-year $500,000,000 payout to the doctors. And is that all the doctors (re: pension plans), all the doctors who got bonuses, or just the "shareholders"? Any takers?
Update 3: Justen has pointed out that Kaiser employees are being subjected to propaganda about the success of Kaiser's budget-sucking EMR, while in truth the system is faltering: Epic outages have increased from just over 9,000 user hours per month in June to over 59,000 last month. If anyone wants to see what these outages being dealt with in situ, here's an extract from a Kaiser critical incident whiteboard (emphasis mine):
Fri, 6 Oct 2006 10:38:19 Issue is thought to have been going on since August and was called in on 10/3. it was today on 10/6 that the decission to halt claims proccessing was made - reference ticket number HD0000001887810 Fri, 6 Oct 2006 10:54:04 Status - prod and non-prod membership systems were pointed at Diamond - prod and test data fed into Diamond since August 2006. This caused test transactions to reach prod Diamond - interfaces have been corrected, corrective action needs to be taken to address data integrity issues in Diamond, causing claims processing to be halted as of about 30 mins ago - double-paid claims, claims incorrectly denied, wrong copay, etc. Potential KPHC impact due to claim accumulators in Diamond that summarize and total data for high-deductible plans, this could be used for determining benefit eligibility once passed to KPHC. Fri, 6 Oct 2006 10:54:40 There were two databases in KMATE, one test and one production. For some reason they were both pointed to Diamond for data transfer. So Diamond was receiving good data from production, but bad data from the test environment. [Name Omitted] is now trying to figure out just how much data has been compromised and giving us an ETA on how mush is affected. Fri, 6 Oct 2006 10:59:01 Could impact the collection of co-pay and if good data is being used to collect co-pay notified HC Swat Fri, 6 Oct 2006 11:09:02 There were about 15000 records that came over from the test environment. There are three different types of transactions, members, group and coordination of benefits. There are about 125 people who are not able to do any work because claims is choosing not to process anything at this time.
(And later...)
Fri, 6 Oct 2006 14:31:26 Two outstanding problems. Over 15,000 MRN records that may need to be modified using correct production data. Over 5,100 MRN's from the 15,000 that were processed and may need to be adjusted due to incorrect information.. They will be sorting and trying to get more detail on what could be wrong.
And how do the EMR outages look to the health care workers who are trying to take care of people?
Oct 10t: I was ushered to one of the examining rooms to wait for the doctor to come in. I noticed a monitor in the room attached to a cart that had an ugly message saying, "Error - Server too Busy." Just then the nurse walked into the room to see me staring at the screen. "Do you know anything about computers?" I said, "Why don't you click on the Refresh button at the top of the screen." As she did Epic started running asking for her login and eventually coming to life again in all of its glory. "That's great," she said, "Now I can fix all the others in the department."
What do Kaiser folks do when they have too much time on their hands? Do they get a jump on helping the next patient? Noooo - they Google for raped toddlers.
Or perhaps they're busy schmoozing before they get offloaded like their counterparts in Hawaii. Clearly those poor slobs in Hawaii forgot that Californian's hold the corporate coin purse, and their priority ain't health care:
So we can see that from the outset the goal of managed health care is not to help people manage to be healthy, but rather to help a few people like Henry Kaiser manage to permanently live like kings.
On the lighter side, the Internet's special sense of karmic justice caught up with one of Kaiser's astroturfing hacks. It's always nice to see some evidence there is a God keeping the baddies from getting out of hand.
Lastly DMHC honcho Cindy Ehnes wins the lame claim prize for the week (from email responding to the DMHC's failure to act on Kaiser patient complaints):
DMHC cannot make charges stick unless they are ultimately factually supportable. It is this difference that distinguishes us from a 'court of public opinion' or a blog.
Hello? So where was this effort to be "factually supportable" when the DMHC put out a press release and public order against me with false accusations - based on no investigation, only a request from Kaiser's PR people who were trying to use me to cover up for their crimes? And where was the DMHC's interest in facts when they railroaded me to sign a settlement that would protect them from being sued - and then they broke their side of the settlement without giving a fig about what that would do to me? And where is the DMHC's apology for what they did to me?
In its current state the DMHC ought to be looking at blogs as MODELS of investigation and ethical reporting.
Update: An anonymous commenter points out that Justen Deal seems to have had a change of heart. I've only read some of his testimony so far, but it looks like he sees a lot of what I've been trying to point out. I'm happy to talk it out if he shows up to confirm. And Further Update: I've looked into this, and while Justen still loves Kaiser, he's genuine about wanting to address the organization's ethical shortcomings. I wish him luck. For the visiting reporters today: please note that Justen's actions signify the utter failure of Kaiser's Compliance Hotline.
In speaking of Kaiser turn-arounds, I just got a recruitment letter from a "Lead Recruiter" from Kaiser Permanente Program Offices for a Portal/CMS Administrator job. Dudes - you owe me about a million apologies before you start wooing me to fix your screwed up Intranet system.
Update 2: A kind soul just pointed out the DMHC corruption scandal. How did that get by me? Donohue has now fired back with accusations of bribery at the top. I'd like to point out that Cindy Ehnes, Donohue's boss, was hand-picked by Governor Schwarzenegger, too.
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