My BlackBerry woke me shortly after midnight with an alert that the Los Angeles Times had posted a front page story on the challenges the Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect problem is facing. The article is an amazing, honest insight into a project that has serious implications with regard to the health of Kaiser Permanente, and the safety of our patients.
The past few months have been more difficult than I could ever have imagined. I did not expect everyone to immediately appreciate the significance of the situation at Kaiser Permanente, yet the response from individuals inside and outside the organization has been overwhelmingly affirmative. Our physicians, our nurses, and people from across healthcare are extremely concerned with the future of Kaiser Permanente, under its current leadership.
I hope that, finally, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Board of Directors and physicians from across our Permanente medical groups will begin to frankly and honestly address the status and future of the HealthConnect project. It is time that a discussion take place that puts patient safety first, with a keen eye to the financial stability of our organization.
It is regrettably clear to me that George Halvorson and others within the organization have placed their personal interests far above the interests of our members. Over the past several weeks, I have come face to face with a terrible side of our organization, one in which retaliation and daunting threats of attack on my personal and professional integrity have nearly completely undermined my determination to continue to “fight to protect the future of our organization, the future of Kaiser Permanente.”
I had to remind myself this morning, of why I took the steps I did, beginning in August, and essentially culminating on November 3. I, like each of my colleagues at Kaiser Permanente, promised to protect our organization and our members. That’s a promise I intend to keep.
on Feb 16th, 2007 at 23:33
What specifically are the features of the Healthconnect System.
Why is it so diffcult to build ?
Does the system try to integrate the Healthcare and the health-plan side of data ? Does it require the common data sets to be present in one single database. This has been rarely done before so maybe that is the challange, it being probably the first time.
on Feb 16th, 2007 at 23:33
Justen,
I have been concerned for you because you have not posted…glad you are still spearheading this national crusade to protect the safety of all patients and KP…front page coverage may be the accelerant needed to start turning the tide.
To all who support Justen and his heroic efforts: you must notify the FDA at FDA.gov of any and all situations of patient injury, unexpected death, and medical care errors in hospitals that use the CPOE hub for managing patient care or have the EHR.
Any adverse patient matter pertaining to misclicks, duplicate medications, wrong doses, delays, wrong tests, complications related to system failure, backup dysfunctions, patient neglect, etc. should be reported. Hospital administrators love to charge this up to human error to protect their investment and (flawed) decisions to buy into CPOE and EHR, but these devices potentiate mistakes via their user unfriendliness.
Justen and this cause needs everyone’s help. Let’s roll.
Menoalittle
on Feb 17th, 2007 at 15:03
Justen:
I am a KP employee and have been watching your saga. I, and all of my colleagues, think your efforts are incredibly courageous and admirable.
If KP had any decency, they would look at the ridiculous costs they have incurred trying to cover up what you’ve brought to light. Every penny they spend on hiding the truth is a diversion from patient care and operating a sound business, and that’s wrong.
Please keep this posting public.