From KTVU.com:
LOS ANGELES — A surgeon with close ties to the Bay Area was charged Monday with prescribing excessive drugs to a comatose, disabled patient to hasten his death and harvest his organs for transplantation.
It’s the first such criminal case against a transplant doctor in the United States, the San Luis Obispo County district attorney’s [...]

[kaiserthrive.org's editor's note: Is this vindication for Kaiser critics, who have been making these claims for years only to be erroneously discredited, abused and marginalized by Kaiser management and its less than ethical PR and legal departments? Feels a little like vindication, but in our experience these people seem to regret their horrendous actions quite a bit less than they do being caught.

We received an email from a Kaiser employee a few days ago, asking us if we would be willing to post some tangible steps that Kaiser could take to improve itself, as well as a score card listing some of these steps and how Kaiser is doing with implementing them. Kaiser makes a point of pretending it doesn't respond to anything we do, even though we know for a fact that isn't true, but in the spirit of supporting what is best for Kaiser members, we are more than willing to report on positive steps in the right direction. We're still hoping to find even one Kaiser member or employee who has been treated fairly in a dispute, and as soon as that happens it will be our pleasure to report it here.]

From the L.A. Times:

State fines Kaiser again — The HMO’s second such penalty in a year targets its handling of patient complaints at nine hospitals. [...]

[kaiserthrive.org editor's note: This is far from an isolated incident. We hear from people on a regular basis who have been referred to Kaiser Behavioral Health because their doctor can't figure out what is wrong with them. It is ingrained in the Kaiser culture to blame the patient rather than question the competence of [...]

The Kaiser Papers has just posted a detailed declaration by whistleblower Dr. William Moores, in the case of past Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, Dr. Terry McEnany. This guy was so incompetent and dangerous he makes Jayant Patel look like Marcus Welby, MD.
This is one of the most egregious cover [...]

[kaiserthrive.org editor's note: Kaiser often defends repeat malpractice offenders -- such as Dr. Death Jayant Patel -- for years, resulting in many unnecessary patient deaths. Unlike medical care, where every penny is pinched, Kaiser spares no expense defending its negligence. The running joke is that Kaiser will spend $1,000,000 to defend a $1,000 claim, and to say that Kaiser lawyers play dirty to win is unfortunately a gross understatement. Never forget who is footing the bill: that's right, YOU.]

The state medical board is seeking to revoke or suspend a local physician’s license after her patient was not admitted to the hospital promptly and developed blood poisoning.

The state attorney general, on behalf of the medical board, says Dr. Degrasia Anne Howard committed multiple acts of gross negligence, in a report filed June 15. [...]

From the L.A. Daily News:
New homeless dumping allegation probed
BY KERRY CAVANAUGH, Staff Writer
The City Attorney’s Office is investigating whether Kaiser Permanente dumped a homeless patient on Skid Row, in violation of a settlement reached in a previous case.
The latest inquiry began after officials learned that workers from Kaiser’s Baldwin Hills hospital took a 26-year-old man [...]