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Kaiser Permanente ER (Emergency Room) Stories and Articles of Interest
There are 28 articles on this page. Four of the articles are related to two incidents.
| Index of Articles | Kaiser Permanente ER Room (Emergency) Stories and Articles of Interest | |
| 2013 - Susan Kasperski - Warning about Kaiser Fontana 2007 - 2012 Kasier Fontana ER Serious Problems Aug. 19, 2009 Dr. Hamid Safari wants state medical officials to help him get this job back at Kaiser Fresno October 2007 The stories of the last Tuesday and Wednesday on the obstetrician and "perinatologist" Dr. Hamid Safari of Kaiser Fresno reminded me of my several interactions with him during my 18 months of ER work at Kaiser Fresno 1997-1999 Sept 1, 2006 John's family said he could walk fine just over a year ago, when he checked into the emergency room at Kaiser in Hayward, complaining of a pain in his leg. A few days later, it became even worse. 2006 I went in with swelling in my face. I saw over 10 different DR's at 2 facility's 07/26/2003 RIVERSIDE - Police arrested an emergency-room nurse on suspicion of stealing jewelry, credit cards and driver licenses from patients at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Riverside, authorities said. June 3, 2006 concerns about the quality of care at Kaiser's Bellflower Medical Center May 29, 2005 Before I even got to see my husband they demanded the copay of $100.00. October 9, 2003 - For the past few weeks, I've been having pretty severe chest pains. I was unable to get into a doctor for 3 days, finally I called the administrator and they talked me into going to the ER. In the ER May 19, 2003 The Fannie Roberts Incident December 2002 Tragedy strikes a blended family after the parents die suddenly January 2 2002 Cases Reveal Lapses in Kaiser Emergency Care Health: Nine arbitration proceedings offer a rare look into HMO. It denies any pattern of negligence. 2002 Letter from Dr. Phillips to George and Barbara Bush September 2001 Kaiser Anthrax Emergency Room 2/11/01 Patient with CXR sent by outside ER (2) January 8, 2001 Kaiser failed to provide basic health care services including providing preventive care and emergency services Stephen Keller Pacifica, CA September 4, 1998 Kaiser Cited By State for Poor Care Criticism in deaths of 2 emergency patients July 25, 1998 Mother blames Kaiser for son's death January 31, 1998 Kaiser Permanente has 10 days to correct long emergency room waits January 26, 1998 commercially motivated scheme of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program to substantially reduce acute care and emergency health services, and tacitly sanctioned by deliberate inaction and omission... 1996 Auditors also found that 25% of non-network emergency room treatment for Kaiser members was denied unreasonably. MAY 14, 1996 Injured Employee/Workers Comp Case 1996 California investigators issued a scorching report damning one of the state's largest HMOs for shoddy emergency medical service. 1996 Margaret Utterback Aug. 30, 1995 A pregnant woman was rushed to a hospital emergency room, in the throes of a miscarriage and bleeding profusely. 1993 - Baby James Adams Story December 11, 1984 THREE NURSES TREATED AFTER FOUL AIR PUMPED INTO KAISER NEONATAL UNIT SECOND INCIDENT OVEREXTENDING EVERYONE’S TRAINING – JANITORS THROUGH PHYSICIANS |
Doctor
cleared by state wants Fresno job back
Published online on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 Dr. Hamid Safari wants state medical officials to help him get his job back as a perinatologist at Kaiser Permanente in Fresno. The California Medical Board found Safari, 51, not responsible for causing the deaths of a fetus and an infant, but Kaiser officials -- who offered Safari $2 million in severance -- will not allow him to return to work. Safari has been on administrative leave with pay for 18 months. He is Kaiser's only high-risk pregnancy doctor in Fresno. Being cleared of negligence by the California Medical Board in March does not allow Safari to automatically return to work for Kaiser. "That's between him and the hospital," said Candis Cohen, a medical board spokeswoman. "The Medical Board of California has no role there." Jeffrey Collins, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente's Fresno service area, said the HMO's "standards obviously go well beyond whether a physician can merely retain his license with the Medical Board." He said he could not comment about ongoing peer-review issues. Collins said Kaiser takes scrutiny of its physicians seriously and seeks to treat them fairly by maintaining confidentiality in the peer-review process. Safari's complaint, which was filed Wednesday with the state Department of Managed Health Care, seeks an investigation of Kaiser's medical review procedures. The complaint also is being forwarded to the state Medical Board. In 2007, Safari was accused of gross negligence in the two deaths. The board investigated whether Safari used excessive force in a vacuum extraction of a twin boy during his April 2005 birth. The boy's spinal cord was severed. Safari said that another doctor already had rotated the fetus before Safari attempted to extract the twin. Expert witnesses in the state hearing said Safari could not have caused the death because the fatal injury was consistent with pressure from an improper rotation of the fetus in the womb, said his lawyer, Stephen Schear. In the other case, Safari was accused of failing to order a Caesarean section in the 2004 birth of a baby girl whose fetal heart monitor showed problems. The baby died 10 months later. Safari said the baby likely died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Had the accusations been upheld, Safari could have lost his medical license. After complaints arose about Safari and other Kaiser employees, the state Department of Managed Health Care sought 10 corrective actions from the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in 2007, ranging from peer-review issues, health-care delivery and member complaints. Kaiser officials say the deficiencies were corrected. Lynne Randolph, a spokeswoman for the state agency, said examiners are following up with Kaiser to ensure those deficiencies no longer exist. She said the agency also will examine Safari's complaint, but if it duplicates a previous report, the agency will not start a new investigation. In his complaint, Safari said he had received "exceptional" reviews from 1997 until 2002 when he began complaining about Kaiser's quality-assurance process. Schear said Safari is not interested in suing Kaiser, even though his suspension from work has been unfair and portrayed him in a negative light. "His only motivation is to return to work," Schear said. Safari has accused Dr. Gilbert Moran, the former head of Kaiser Fresno's obstetrics/gynecology department, and Dr. Robert Rusche of having a vendetta against him. Safari said the two doctors targeted him after he complained to superiors that a doctor was abusing his power on a quality review committee. Rusche, who retired from Kaiser, said he believes Safari is brilliant but should not be caring for patients. He said Safari could serve the community as a medical professor. "I don't want to see him devastated, but I also don't want to see patients at risk," Rusche said. Moran now works for Kaiser in Bakersfield. He couldn't be reached to comment. In
2006, Rusche and Moran sued Kaiser, claiming the HMO retaliated after
they complained about Safari. Rusche and Moran finalized a settlement
with Kaiser in July for about $1.4 million, including attorney fees. 07/26/2003 ER nurse arrested in probe of thefts MEDICAL CENTER: She is suspected of stealing jewelry and credit cards from patients, police say. By ANDREA CAVANAUGH THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE RIVERSIDE - Police arrested an emergency-room nurse on suspicion of stealing jewelry, credit cards and driver licenses from patients at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Riverside, authorities said. Gemma Yuman, 35, a licensed vocational nurse, was arrested July 11 at her home in San Bernardino, Riverside police Sgt. Leon Phillips said. ...Family members of a woman who died in the emergency room complained to hospital officials that the woman's jewelry had been stolen, Kaiser Permanente spokesman James Gilkerson said in a telephone interview. Read more at: https://kaiserpapers.com/andrea.html May 19, 2003 Verissimo and Correll said doctors and emergency room personnel at Memorial were outraged at the condition of the foot and wanted to treat Rogers. Kaiser denied permission, the family said. "The Kaiser doctor told me to take her to the Dameron ER in Stockton, and she made out a prescription for morphine pills," Verissimo said. "I was livid. We almost took her, but she had been in the emergency room all day, she hadn't eaten and she had dialysis the next day." The medication improved Rogers' spirits, and she went to dialysis the next day in Modesto, her daughter said. When her Stockton doctors did an angiogram April 25, they found that she had a heart problem, and she was admitted to Dameron the next day. Verissimo was in her mother's hospital room when Rogers' blood pressure plummeted and nurses rushed in to revive her. She died of heart failure two days later. https://kaiserpapers.com/sendea.html Patient with CXR sent by outside ER - Victor Valley https://kaiserpapers.com/co/cxr.html The Manipulation of HMO Medical Testing ....."But there is another approach - to put barriers in front of the physicians. When I worked in the Kaiser emergency room, the then Chief of Radiology told me that I could not order a CT scan of the low back from the emergency room location without first getting the permission of the physical medicine director. " https://kaiserpapers.com/co/conten.html MAY 14, 1996 Worker's Compensation Case I. BACKGROUND On June 17, 1991, claimant sustained a compensable back injury while working for employer. A July 16, 1991 MRI revealed that claimant sustained a herniated disc at L4-L5. On August 23, 1991, based upon a memorandum of agreement executed by the parties, the commission entered an award for temporary total disability and medical benefits. Claimant sought medical treatment from Dr. Paul McClain, a physician employed by Capital Area Permanente Medical Group ("CAPMG"), which provides medical services to the patients of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center ("Kaiser"). On November 8, 1991, employer's insurance adjusters, Love, Barnes and McKew, ("insurer"), sent a letter to Kaiser requesting an updated medical report concerning claimant's condition. Insurer informed Kaiser that it had only received medical records concerning claimant's treatment through September 5, 1991, but nothing thereafter. Receiving no response to its November 8, 1991 letter, insurer renewed its request to Kaiser on December 11, 1991. The record does not show whether insurer received a response from Kaiser at that time. Read More At: https://kaiserpapers.com/legalstuff/wiggins.html Letter from Dr. Phillips to George and Barbara Bush https://kaiserpapers.com/drphillips/geoandbarb.html Section 14 – OVEREXTENDING EVERYONE’S TRAINING – JANITORS THROUGH PHYSICIANS One way to save money is to have everyone practice above his or her training. Kaiser has used this approach for a long time. 1. Janitors and other housekeeping personnel were renamed "service partners" and then told to answer patient call button requests for help in the emergency room; the state of California caught this and told Kaiser to quit it; .......9. Physicians have the dues paid by the Plan to join medical societies so that they can rise to the top – one recent President of the California Medical Society was a Kaiser emergency physician; it helps to have the voting power to get him there; .....One attempt ARC made was to see that two me bedical journals – one for pediatricians and one for emergency physicians – came out with the same article at the same time – the best approach to fever in the child from 3 months to 24 months. Read more at: https://kaiserpapers.com/businesspractices/unauthorized-outline.html Mother blames Kaiser for son's death When Linette McCan's 7-year-old son Gregory came to her complaining of a stomachache last Saturday, she never dreamed her child would be dead the next morning. She says doctors in the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente's Walnut Creek hospital ignored Gregory as he suffered from what turned out to be meningococcal sepsis, an infection that led to his death Sunday morning. https://kaiserpapers.com/californianews/gregorymccan.htmlSeptember 4, 1998 - Kaiser Cited By State for Poor Care Criticism in deaths of 2 emergency patients Kaiser Permanente's Walnut Creek Hospital has been cited for deficient care of a 7-year-old San Ramon boy and a psychiatric patient, both of whom died after going to its emergency room and being transferred to other hospitals. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/09/04/MN52892.DTL&type=printable January 2 2002 Cases Reveal Lapses in Kaiser Emergency Care Health: Nine arbitration proceedings offer a rare look into HMO. It denies any pattern of negligence. By CHARLES ORNSTEIN Times Health Writer https://kaiserpapers.com/news/ca/arby.html 1996 - The auditors also found that 25% of non-network emergency room treatment for Kaiser members was denied unreasonably. Credit - Jamie Court https://kaiserpapers.com/californianews/ Sep 1, 2006 John's family said he could walk fine just over a year ago, when he checked into the emergency room at Kaiser in Hayward, complaining of a pain in his leg. A few days later, it became even worse. mirrored for historical purposes at: https://kaiserpapers.com/pellini.html January 31, 1998 Walnut
Creek --
Kaiser Permanente has 10 days
to correct long emergency room June
3, 2006 December 11, 1984 THREE NURSES TREATED AFTER FOUL AIR PUMPED INTO KAISER NEONATAL UNIT SECOND INCIDENT A second incident in which foul-smelling air was pumped into Kaiser Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit sent three nurses to the emergency room for treatment. But two infants in the unit were left hooked to the compressed air system that carried the foul smell because the hospital didn't have enough backup equipment to supply the babies with clean air, The Bee has learned. The second incident occurred on the overnight shift of Sept. 14-15, just two days after air... October 2007 The stories of the last Tuesday and Wednesday on the obstetrician and "perinatologist" Dr. Hamid Safari of Kaiser Fresno reminded me of my several interactions with him during my 18 months of ER work at Kaiser Fresno 1997-1999. So I have a few comments to add: ..... 1)
he was extremely arrogant;
2)
he liked to apply rules that kept
patients out of the hospital - Kaiser's primary money making goal -
even though it put pregnant women at high risk; in one case a woman
with excessive vomiting suffered her third miscarriage related to his
blocking of admission;
3)
he had no hesitation to cause
extreme pain - the opening of a full C-Section incision without giving
an IV narcotic first to block the pain; I heard the screaming, saw what
he had done, and told him in the hall that I was ashamed to share the
same profession;....Read More :
https://kaiserpapers.com/drphillips/hamid-safari.html May 24,2006 ADHD drugs send thousands to ERs Accidental overdoses and side effects from attention deficit drugs likely send thousands of children and adults to emergency rooms, according to the first national estimates of the problem. Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated problems with the stimulant drugs drive nearly 3,100 people to ERs each year. Nearly two-thirds — overdoses and accidental use — could be prevented by parents locking the pills away, the researchers say. Other patients had side effects, including potential cardiac problems such as chest pain, stroke, high blood pressure and fast heart rate. Read More: https://kaiserpapers.com/behavioral/adhddrugs.html My husband, Bob Johnson died on May 29, 2005, and he was a victim of Kaiser. We followed the ambulance to Kaiser about an hour's drive, and then I was told to wait so they could look at him. TWO hours later they allowed me in. Before I even got to see my husband they demanded the copay of $100.00. After I wrote them a check they let me see him. https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/can/bobjohnson.html January 8, 2001 Kaiser failed to provide basic health care services including providing preventive care and emergency services(H & S section 1345(b)(5) and (6), 1367(i), At the same time, Dr. Perry failed to followeven the simplest of standard AAA protocols, such as starting IV’s nd oxygen and/or and administering pain medication to keep Mrs.Utterback calm. https://kaiserpapers.com/fines/enforcement.html January 26, 1998 This action seeks to remedy a health care crisis occurring throughout Northern California including Contra Costa County created in large part by an unlawful, commercially motivated scheme of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program to substantially reduce acute care and emergency health services, and tacitly sanctioned by deliberate inaction and omission of the California Department of Corporations ("DOC") and California Department of Health Services ("DHS"). https://kaiserpapers.com/contracosta.html 38. The Insurance Division of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services recently levied a $20,000 civil penalty against a west coast HMO. According to news reports, an examination by the state agency "uncovered a consistent pattern of denying payment of emergency room claims without a proper investigation." ("Health insurer fined $20,000," Daily Journal of Commerce, Jan. 11, 1996.) 40. A pregnant woman was rushed to a hospital emergency room, in the throes of a miscarriage and bleeding profusely. After a quick exam, the ER staff put in an urgent call to her HMO with the question: How do you want us to treat her? It took nearly three hours for the HMO to call back and say it wouldn't cover the care because none of its doctors was available to treat the woman. After six hours of arguing, the HMO relented. (Hiltzik, Michael A., "Emergency Rooms, HMOs Clash Over Treatments and Payments," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 30, 1995.) Read More: https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/shoddy.htmlSeptember 2001 Kaiser Anthrax Emergency Room The hospital which saw one of the two postal worker in ER Saturday and sent him home with the diagnosis of "flu" later to readmit today at 5:45 am too late to save (according to the New York Times today - page B6) is called Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Suburban Prince Georges County. http://howto.kaiserpapers.com/anthrax.html October 9, 2003 - For the past few weeks, I've been having pretty severe chest pains. I was unable to get into a doctor for 3 days, finally I called the administrator and they talked me into going to the ER. In the ER........ The doctor was unable to tell if it was me having another heart attack or not. https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/heart/sharonwolf.html The doctors and nurses and empoyees of Kaiser Permanente are FIENDS FROM HELL!!! - The James Adams Story. http://groups.google.com/group/atl.general/msg/bc85143e42df3511?q=kaiser+permanente&start=20&hl=en&rnum=26 "One
Spring
morning in 1993 Lamona Adams took her six-month-old son, Adams called Kaiser’s
after-hours number and was instructed to take
James to the Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center, about 40 miles away, which had a contract with the HMO. Thirty miles into the trip James lost consciousness, and the Adamses detoured to the nearest hospital. But by the time they arrived, the infant was in full cardiac arrest. An emergency-room team revived him, then sent him by ambulance to the Scottish Rite medical center, but permanent damage had already occurred. A few days later his hands were amputated, and he also suffered partial amputation of his legs. The
Adamses
sued, claiming that Kaiser should have treated the case as Reader's
Digest, November, 1998. Evidently,
since 1993, the laws and/or patient contracts with
Kaiser The same is true of other HMOs,
but Kaiser may be the worst.
Kaiser Shoddy Emergency Services material saved from:http://www.connix.com/%7Eharry/101-125.htm which is no longer in existence. California
investigators issued
a scorching report damning one of the state's largest HMOs for shoddy
emergency
medical service. A number of cases cited in the report by the
Department
of Corporations indicates that "the plan may be unreasonably denying
coverage
for emergency services." In one case, a patient suffering from acute
appendicitis
was taken to a hospital outside the HMO's system and admitted for
emergency
surgery. Doctors at the hospital told the HMO that it would be risky to
transfer the patient, but the health plan refused to provide coverage
at
an out-of-network hospital.
(Kanigel, Rachele, "Several Kaiser policies get harsh criticism from state," Oakland Tribune, Aug. 29, 1996.) Part of a collection of 184 HMO Patient Horror Stories Preserved at: https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/shoddy.html It has been ten months since Terry Preston's mother died at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Hayward. And for those ten months, Terry says she's been trapped in Kaiser's complaint system, .....Kaiser Permanente says it did nothing wrong that day, and that Margaret Utterback made the mistake of waiting to see her doctor instead of going straight to the emergency room. For most families, that might have ended the matter. But in Margaret Utterback's family, there are three nurses and a doctor. And they say that Kaiser made the mistakes that day. https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/mother.html
Lives forever changed -"Big Bill" Grieve and his wife Pauline Grieve both died within a week of each other at Kaiser from different emergencies. "Big Bill" Grieve died more than
once last Saturday at Kaiser Permanente
Medical Center.
"They must have resuscitated him six times," said his stepson, Shawn Mileham, who describes Grieve as the only father he has ever known. "He kept dying, and coming back. Dying, and coming back. He fought so hard. He knew how much we needed him. He knew he had to be here for his family." Grieve lost his fight that morning, leaving his wife, Pauline, and their large clan to face life without their rock of strength. Less than 24 hours later, as she was shopping for poster board to make a picture collage for her husband's funeral, Pauline Grieve collapsed. She never regained consciousness and died four days later. https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/grieve.html Stephen Keller
On one occasion it was late at night, so my wife took me to the emergency room. They put me on a heart monitor for a couple of hours, then sent me home while my heart was still beating irregularly. https://kaiserpapers.com/horror/heart/cnadocs.html |
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