Blog Topic
Kaiser Malpractice
Southern California Kaiser scores lower on satisfaction than competing hospitals
Posted by: Michael A. Kelly
March 31, 2008
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently completed a survey of 2,500 hospitals in an effort to gauge patient satisfaction. The survey focused on issues including whether nurses and doctors listened to patients, were courteous and respectful, and how they dealt with complaints of pain. The Los Angeles Times reported on the survey on March 29.
The highest scoring hospital was Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, where 87% of its patients said they would "definitely recommend" the hospital to other people.
The highest scoring Kaiser hospital was in Woodland Hills, where 63% of patients would "defintely recommend" their hospital to others. Other Kaiser hospitals, like those in Hollywood, Harbor City, West L.A., Riverside, Bellflower, Fontana, and Panorama City, scored between 50% and 56% on the same question. In fact, as the Times pointed out, "None of the 10 Kaiser hospitals in Southern California that participated in th survey exceeded the regional average."
Of course, these rating beg the question: do the low survey scores translate into increased medical malpractice at Kaiser? Further study on this point would be even more useful to patients because it would allow the appropriate authorities to address a more fundamental issue: can we not only increase satisfaction, but also decrease preventable errors at hospitals?
Hospitals recycling medical devices without telling patients
Posted by: Michael A. Kelly
March 24, 2008
Recycling of medical devices that are explicitly "single use" is on the rise. The Wall Street Journal reports that Kaiser Permanente's recycling of medical devices makes it one of the largest users of recycled medical devices. The leading trade group on the issue, the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR), represents companies that reprocess devices. According to the Journal article, AMDR members recycle products made from hard metals or polymers and plastics, and reuse them between two and five times.
Dan Vukelich, president of the Association, was quoted as saying reprocessed devices can be safer in some cases because each must be inspected before reuse, while original manufacturers test new devices only in batches. His organization also alleges that device makers label many products as single-use merely to be able to sell more new devices to hospitals. But the bigger question is, shouldn't patients be told?
AMDR, the reprocessing group, is fighting efforts to require that patients go through formal informed-consent processes. Despite the fact informed consent is a bedrock patient right, the AMDR's position is that informed consent is unnecessary when it comes to reused medical devices.
Kaiser Permanente started reprocessing single-use devices more than a decade ago. According to Kaiser spokesman Dean Edwards, vice president and chief procurement officer, Kaiser shaved about $3.5 million from its device costs in 2007 thanks to device reuse.
Kaiser patients may want to ask their doctor whether the saw blade, catheter, stent, syringe, or other single-use device used in their procedure have already been used once or twice on another patient. If such a reused product has caused injury to you or a loved one, the lawyers at Walkup can help.
