Those Kaiser IT Drama Queens

post from Kaiser Permanente - Corporate Ethics on 11 December 2006 01:13:56 PM. © Kaiser Permanente - Corporate Ethics

More Kaiser EMR outages are detailed in this article. After asserting that Kaiser physicians don't care about improving the EMR as much as he does, Kaiser's Interim CIO Turkstra lowers his goal for EMR uptime to 99.7% (in the talking points document Kaiser circulated about Justen, the goal is held to be 99.9%). 99.7% is actually pretty low - remember, incidents don't "average out" - an average of 4 minutes a day could mean half an hour during the week.

The article describes several "critical patient issues", including a baby endangered in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), but Turkstra dismisses the wording of the incident report as "dramatic". Yep, those tech support folk are some of the most drama-prone people in the working world. Everytime someone loses an email at Kaiser, 15 guys run in little circles, screaming and tearing their hair out. ;-)

In other news, a doctor describes frustrations with the Kaiser system from the patient point of view:

Dr. Min Su said he found it hard to believe when patients expressed frustrations in dealing with the health system for which he worked. This week, the Modestan found himself in those patients' shoes, battling the system after an insurance flap caused his premature twins to be split between two hospitals [Kaiser wanted the weaker of two twins to be moved to a Kaiser hospital]....The Kaiser health system did not literally "require" the transfer, but a case manager said the parents would have to pay for the charges [if one of the twins remained at an outside hospital]...

..."I heard a lot of patient complaints about Kaiser," Su said. "Now, I realize they provide good care for the healthy patients, but when the big one comes, they don't care. They just care about saving money."

...As a former physician for Kaiser, Su said, he was able to appeal to officials in Kaiser management to resolve the issue, something that is rarely possible for regular patients...."I got nowhere going through normal channels," he said. "I can see it is frustrating for people who are looking for help and don't know where to go."

Lastly, has anyone been reading the story of Abu Ghraib whistleblower Joe Darby? This poor guy can't even go back to his own hometown because every thinks he's a rat who betrayed his buddies for handing over PICTURES OF PEOPLE BEING TORTURED FOR KICKS. What is wrong with this country? Silencing whistleblowers (including discouraging them through loud humiliation and abuse) and hiding such atrocities helps perpetuate them. And this isn't just about a few people who were unluckily subjected to torture - though that should be reason enough in a civilized society - it's about whether we want the respect and admiration of the rest of the world. That respect and admiration has to be earned: the world is not a high school where Americans automatically get the privileges of being pretty and popular just because they can afford a nose job and a new car.

Read The Full Article:
http://corphq.livejournal.com/79107.html

Digg this

Inhofe Distorts New UN Report On Climate Change:
‘We Are All Skeptics Now’

post from Think Progress on 11 December 2006 01:10:00 PM. © Think Progress

On Sunday, the London Telegraph previewed a new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is viewed as an authoritative source of global warming science. According to the Telegraph, the report concludes “there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet.” Moreover, carbon dioxide emissions are accelerating and [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/11/inhofe-climate-change/

Digg this

They Write Letters

post from Eschaton on 11 December 2006 12:59:00 PM. © Eschaton

Greg Sargent writes to John Carroll.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_12_10_atrios_archive.html#116586000730976124

Digg this

Wanker of the Day

post from Eschaton on 11 December 2006 12:55:00 PM. © Eschaton

David Frum.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_12_10_atrios_archive.html#116585975346911340

Digg this

Bush adopts ISG slogan (and nothing else)

post from Daily Kos on 11 December 2006 12:54:00 PM. © Daily Kos

Arianna:

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is already backing away from most of the proposals put forth by the Iraq Study Group. The New York Times, with unintended comic irony, noted it this way: "Administration officials say their preliminary review of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendations has concluded that many of its key proposals are impractical or unrealistic." Thank God we have George Bush to protect us from doing anything impractical or unrealistic in the Middle East.

But don't worry. Bush liked one thing about the report -- the slogan. He'll adopt "New Way Forward" as his new slogan while he continues doing the same things that have led us to this disaster.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/59879211/13

Digg this

Defending Against a Congressional Probe: A Primer

post from TPMmuckraker on 11 December 2006 12:49:14 PM. © TPMmuckraker

Uh-oh, you just got a subpoena from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) in the mail. What do you do? As we've noted here before, a Democratic Congress means big business for those who make their living defending big business. And law...

Read The Full Article:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002119.php

Digg this

Apparently Doolittle learned one thing from this
past campaign

post from Dump Doolittle on 11 December 2006 12:49:00 PM. © Dump Doolittle

John Doolittle is interviewed by Gus Thomson (Auburn Journal) about his response to the Iraq Study Group report and provides the following:Doolittle said that while debate will continue on a course in Iraq, the U.S. should stay true to its commitments to its military."Regardless of how one feels about the war or this report, it is critical that Congress continue to provide our troops with the

Read The Full Article:
http://solongjohn.blogspot.com/2006/12/apparently-doolittle-learned-one-thing.htm
l

Digg this

The War on Christmas

Look, it's very simple. There are two Christmas holidays. One is the secular holiday, decreed by the federal government to be a national holiday, which is celebrated and marked with festive displays of trees, lights, fat guys with beards, and elves, along with lots of shopping and the giving of gifts. The other holiday involves a celebration of the birth of the Messiah, and is celebrated with religious rituals and displays of nativity scenes and other religious imagery.

Public displays of secular Christmas imagery? fine.

Public displays of religious Christmas imagery? less fine.

Christmas trees in airports? fine.
Baby Jesus scenes in airports? less fine.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_12_10_atrios_archive.html#116585919012358214

Digg this

Bloomberg A Maverick Give Me A Break

In the film SERPICO, Al Pacino’s girlfriend tells him a little parable to help him understand why his ratting out of bad cops is the only choice open to him, however distasteful it might be.A good king and queen ruled benevolently. One day a wicked witch demands special favors and is denied them. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://guntotingliberal.com/archives/406

Digg this

Representative William Jefferson and New Orleans'
logic

All over the country there were sweeping upsets with incumbents getting told, your services are no longer needed for a host of different reasons, but not in New Orleans.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.enewsreference.com/blog.shtml

Digg this