Can this man save Permanente medicine?

Nary a mention of it’s been made in the California media, but Francis J. Crosson (you can call him Jay) is resigning as head of The Permanente Federation, effective September 30. Jack Cochran, a plastic surgeon who currently heads up the Permanente Medical Group in Colorado, will be “elevated to [the] national role” of executive director of the Federation.

I’m not sure if “elevated” is the right word. Dr. Crosson has seen the Federation become increasingly irrelevant since he started as its founding executive director about a decade or so ago. While Kaiser Permanente’s initial electronic health record was truly spearheaded by Dr. Crosson and the Federation, since George Halvorson took over KP, both the Federation and the (now barely existent) “Kaiser Permanente Partnership Group” have barely any power left.

Perhaps the Federation is best known for its funneling of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan’s not-for-profit dollars into its nice little investment firm, KP Ventures?

I still remember, back in November, Dr. Crosson’s frantic emails to Dr. Weisz about the HealthConnect problems finally making the news. I suppose we all want to have a decent legacy, by the time it’s all said and done. How horrific it must be to Jay Crosson that HealthConnect will probably be his.