From the Orange County Register:
Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim defies Medical Board
The state is investigating possible malpractice by a physician in Anaheim, but the hospital won’t release patient names without a court order.
By BLYTHE BERNHARD
The state attorney general wants to force Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim to release the names of two patients who died while in the care of a pediatric cardiologist.
The hospital has not cooperated with the state medical board’s investigation of the doctor, identified only as “Dr. Y,” according to a petition filed this week in Orange County Superior Court.
The state’s investigation of “Dr. Y” started last year after Kaiser Anaheim reviewed the doctor’s conduct in the care of 20 patients, including the two who died. As a result of the hospital’s inquiry, the doctor agreed to a restriction of his pediatric cardiology practice and, as required by law, Kaiser notified the state of the disciplinary action. It’s unclear if the physician continues to work at the hospital.
In October, the state issued a subpoena for all records pertaining to the discipline of “Dr. Y.” In response, Kaiser handed over 1,300 pages of documents related to the case, but redacted patient names, citing confidentiality rules.
State medical board investigators say they need the names of patients to contact their families and obtain coroner’s reports, according to the court filing. The hospital has said it won’t release the names unless the court orders them to. A hearing is set for May 29.
“In order to protect the patients’ privacy, we need a judge to decide whether or not the medical board really needs those names,” said Kaiser Permanente spokesman Jim Anderson. “If the judge decides that, then obviously we’ll comply.”
Oh my; such an effort to “protect a patient’s privacy,” when they make a Kaiser Roseville, CA ER patient yell their very personal medical info and financial info through thick bullet proof glass right in the middle of their waiting room! Hypocrisy??
It has been said that Kaiser Stands for Hypocrisy, so yeah.
I have some very unfortunate personal experience with Kaiser’s disregard for patient privacy. It’s another story I’ll be telling in detail when the time is right.
This is how they play it:
They twist the HIPAA laws one way to make it difficult for patients to gain access to their own medical records, or for attorneys and investigators. Anything that might make Kaiser look bad.
But when they want to release something to investigators that they can use to paint the patient in a bad light, suddenly they are required by law to turn over this confidential information, even against the patient’s express directive. This is what they did to me. After refusing to release my records to investigators before I signed the authorization, they didn’t comply with the limitations set by the same form they made me sign.
The law is very one sided — make that lopsided — when you’re up against Kaiser and the bottom feeders they call legal counsel.
Kaiser wants to sound like it is cooperating and protecting patient privacy, because they ALWAYS try to control the message, but as usual there is an ulterior motive.
Yes, I like how they are protecting the patients privacy. I am on my 5th request now for requesting my medical records. They are protecting the patients rights so fiercely that even I, the PATIENT, can’t even get a hold of my own medical records.
They are pulling out all of the stops to prevent me from accessing my medical records. The 5th request in 2 weeks goes out again today. Let’s see what they can dream up next to prevent me from viewing my records. I’m glad to see they are looking out for the patients. Right.
where am I in your law suits
This is just one more example (among TOO many) of how Kaiser attempts to evade the “supposed” checks and balances designed to protect us. We had lots of problems with Kaiser in gathering information regarding our daughter’s death and these evasive tactics will continue until we, COLLECTIVELY, find a way to take action against them.
Susan, as I stated in my email, you will have to refresh my memory about your lawsuit because I was unable to find anything with your name on it.
Request them and take your own pictures….Then email everyone in the world….
Our inspection of the records is permitted by the Health & Safety Act, section 123110 et seq. “Every person having ultimate responsibility for decisions respecting his or her own health care also possesses a concomitant right of access to complete information respecting his or her condition and care provided.”
The law requires that :”any patient or patient’s representative shall be entitled to copies of all or any portion of the patient records that he or she has a right to inspect, upon presenting a written request to the health care provider specifying the records to be copied.” We made such written request to you in writing. You made no objections to the inspection of the records and produced them voluntarily.
First of all, you did not have one of the volumes for xxx available today, despite our request to you for having all records available. Second, you apparently have no policies of photographic restrictions in your office since you discussed this with your supervisor who then told you not to permit us to make copies or take photographs of the records.
You indicated that the law requires that copies of the medical records must only be made by Kaiser and payment for such copies done in advance. Furthermore, you indicated that it may take up to 15 days to make such copies. You stated that the law does not permit us to make photographic copies of the records and refused to allow us to proceed further in making such photographic copies.
I am not sure how Kaiser differentiates between a photographic copy and a xerographic copy and why Kaiser feels that the law permits a xerographic copy to be made but does not permit a photographic copy. Surely, there cannot be any difference in the informational content, is there?
The law only requires that we pay a fee to Kaiser to defray the cost of copying the records. Obviously, since we are taking pictures as our copies, Kaiser has not and cannot claim that they incurred any costs at all. Kaiser therefore cannot demand payment from us, as you did, to make copies for us and prevent us from making photographic copies ourselves. As you know, the intent of the law is to provide access to the medical records, not to restrict access to the records or allow Kaiser to make money by demanding that they make copies of the records.