From San Francisco Business Times:
Kaiser Permanente appointed a new administrative director Thursday to head its troubled Northern California kidney transplant unit.
The San Francisco-based unit, in the process of being closed after intense pressure from state and federal regulators, had been headed by Dr. Sharon Inokuchi.
Kaiser officials said June 15 that Linda Mann, a registered nurse who was formerly the medical group administrator at its Redwood City Medical Center, has headed the San Francisco kidney transplant unit, at Kaiser’s San Francisco Medical Center, since June 12.
Officials gave no indication of the fate of Inokuchi, who headed the unit as medical director and at times as administrative director during the two-year period it was plagued by botched paperwork, lengthy delays in matching patients with donors, and other problems, according to insiders and regulators. Kaiser said in early May it would close the program and transfer patients to waiting lists at other facilities.
In her new role, Mann “will have accountability” for the operations of the kidney program, officials said Thursday. In addition, she will participate in the process of shifting patients from the internal program to UCSF Medical Center and UC Davis Medical Center.
Last week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a demand to Kaiser to fix serious problems at the unit or face a cutoff of funding for transplants and other care provided to its end-stage kidney disease patients. CMS Regional Administrator Jeff Flick, responsible for the regulatory agency’s operations in California, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada, said one of the agency’s three major concerns was administration of the transplant unit and its director.
Kaiser has until June 15 to file a corrective action plan with CMS, but its announcement gave no indication of the status of the action plan.
Kaiser officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
No matter who they hire, the problem will not go away. It’s a fundamental problem with the system!!!
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Linda Mann is just about one of the least honest people I ever encountered during my career at KP (she worked at Redwood City while I was there). Her behavior resulted in several good, long-time employees flat-out resigning (one of them for medical reasons due to Linda’s abuse of her). Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
The problem is that the whole Kaiser hierarchy fosters incompetence and unethical behavior. Many patients feel trapped because they cannot get any other insurance coverage. Many Kaiser doctors also feel trapped because they are so heavily invested in the system (pensions, loans) that they can only dream about leaving Kaiser. Thanks to Kaiser at least one third of Californians get substandard healthcare. They might be better off going overseas to get proper treatment.