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 ups by Kaiser and The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG — the Kaiser Northern California physician’s group) that we have had the displeasure to read, ever. And that’s really saying something, considering the horrifying stories people send us about Kaiser Permanente every single day.
How would you like this butcher performing your heart surgery:
The “index case” that the Chief of Surgery, Dr. Douglas Grey cited as compelling the formal review was a case where Dr. McEnany forcefully removed a catheter entrapped in a patients heart, with the immediate result of the patient bleeding to death in the post operative intensive care unit.
Yeah, we’d say a review was in order all right. Too bad it came ten years too late:
The TPMG administration knew that they had to initiate a formal evaluation of Dr. McEnany’s practice, but wanted to do it in the quietest manner possible, reflecting perhaps the fact that by now they had tolerated the consequences of Dr. McEnany’s incompetence for a decade.
Everyone who worked with Dr. McEnany knew he was killing people, and many of the doctors refused to refer their patients to him. Still it took a decade for anyone to act on that knowledge, and when a formal review was finally initiated, it was later dropped in favor of allowing McEnany to “quietly resign.” No report was filed with the Medical Board of California, and a secret deal was negotiated by McEnany’s attorney for “a laudatory letter of recommendation” to be sent to his new employer — Luther Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin — where many more of his patients were harmed and killed.
For his part in exposing the cover up, whistleblower Dr. William Moores was retaliated against.
The Kaiser Papers has the whole sordid story here.
There is absolutely NO excuse for coverups like this or any others for that matter.
The people who look the other way are criminals just the same. It is horrifying to realize how many people have no conscience and make it possible for criminals like this to continue killing. They are enablers of the worst kind. ENABLER = KILLER
Unfortunately, this is a problem throughout the medical community. My mom had abdominal surgery a year ago, and as she was coming out of the anesthesia she could hear the nurses quietly whispering about how the surgeon was known for botching her type of surgery. No one bothered to mention this apparently well known fact to her BEFORE she trusted them with her health and her life. Horrified doesn’t even begin to describe Mom’s reaction.
She was uninsured at the time, and instead of putting her at ease on the operating table, the anesthesiologist proceeded to give her the third degree about why she didn’t have insurance, where she was working, and how much money she earned, as he was putting her under. When she woke up she found out they had only performed half of the necessary procedure because they believed she wouldn’t pay. She was eligible for emergency Medicaid but no one bothered to find that out, opting instead to toss the Hippocratic Oath into the rubbish bin like so much hazardous waste.
Dogs get better treatment at the vet than people do at the hands of our greedy health care system. My mother is so afraid to trust a doctor or hospital again she will probably avoid them for the rest of her life, which will no doubt be shortened due to a lack of regular medical care.
Isn’t this sad? This is all so very wrong. This “system” is crap, total crap.
Your Mom deserves a ticket to a country to find, HOPEFULLY, less greed, better care and a humane environment. People are checking out before their time because of greed. I am just so sickened and disgusted by the state of the healthcare in this country. Not to mention all the other greed issues that we are grappling with today. Isn’t there someone or something decent, moral or trustworthy out there that we can all count on to do the right thing? Just do the right thing. It seems like it should be so simple. Greed has made this world entirely too complex.
>>Dogs get better treatment at the vet than people do at the hands of our greedy health care system
My elderly cocker spaniel, Dusty Rose, has an excellent Veterinarian as her “primary care” doctor, plus two specialists. One of her problems is a chronic, genetic bacterial condition that would have killed her long ago without treatment. Her second specialist is a doggy eye doctor who slows down the process of her going blind in her advanced age.
The cost for all this excellent health care on my dog is *minimal* after the initial consultations that she had years ago, and her medications are cheap. She has no trouble getting appointments and no trouble getting refills on her medicines and no trouble getting consistent care without interruption.
While I, her owner, have been forced to go over the past nine months without a primary medical doctor because I cannot find anyone who takes my insurance. (And paying cash would be totally prohibitive). And so, I must frequent emergency rooms and urgent care clinics, all who only “put out fires” and never give me enough of my medicines to last more than two weeks.
Medically, I am supposed to get blood tests for my diabetes, thyroid, and cholesterol every three months, yet it has been so long now that I can barely remember what my test numbers normally run. Several times in the past nine months I have been forced to go off some of my medications due to the difficulty of getting them without having a primary care doctor. It is very hard to keep medications going constantly without interruption when you have no doctor for the pharmacy to fax a refill to.
None of this is my fault; its all because I moved across the state due to a divorce. My past doctors refuse to keep my treatment going because they say I moved to another county and I must find a new doctor here. I’ve been on a waiting list for many months. I think I will finally get to see someone soon, but there is really no excuse for the fact that my dog gets cheaper and better health care when I, as a diabetic and person with thyroid and other chronic conditions cannot even get ongoing, continuous care.
Ridculous. Why is this happening in the United States of America? Why?
At the time of our daughter’s death, we (Beth and I) on the surface, at least, should have fit the demographic profile of a “good” Kaiser member; Beth is REALLY good at what she does and makes a lot of money doing it and when we became “members” Kaiser was paying $7000.00 a week ($364,000.00 a year) to employ me as a contractor in their IT department.
We could pay the co-pay back then without too much trouble all throughout the full-term of Beth’s pregnancy.
None of that mattered, though, because the infrastructure at Kaiser is totally broken and no amount of bandaids or cosmetic surgery will fix it.
I have said this before but it bears repeating I think. Anyone who uses Kaiser as a health care provider puts themselves at risk because the level of care provided is sub-standard and all “potential members” should really do their homework and examine Kaiser’s past performance history and accept them only as a VERY last resort.
The only way to change Kaiser is to drop them as your provider.
That is the ONLY way to get their attention: literally, en masse, drop them as your provider. Having them is not much better than being totally uninsured and, in our case with Lehna, actually worse in that we became complacent because we expected a level of care that we did not receive.
Kaiser does not care about you–they only care about your money so do yourself a favor and let your money work for you and not for them.
Kaiser allowed our child to die. I believe that.
Kaiser made an effort to hide the fact that our child may have died unnecessarily. That, I know, for a FACT.
After all, they lost critical medical records then magically found bogus records to put in their place. See how you react to that someday if this should ever happen to you!
Do yourself a favor: DROP KAISER as your health care provider. Demand that your employer seek alternatives so that you have a choice. If someone you love dies or is medically “destroyed” then it is too late. Make the change NOW!
Do it for your family, for the life of your children. Our baby is in heaven; please make sure that your babies have a chance to live a long, healthy life.
Drop Kaiser NOW. It is your only chance TO thrive.
Right on Dude!