[Same old story: complaints were ignored, patients died, whistleblowers were retaliated against, and Kaiser denies any wrongdoing regardless of copious evidence to the contrary. It happens so often we would be bored if it wasn’t so damned tragic. Scroll down to the bottom of the story for a link to the original report about this incident from last October.]
From the LA Times:
Report criticizes Kaiser for lack of action
Federal inspectors fault its Fresno hospital’s response to complaints about a doctor who allegedly fatally botched two deliveries.
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein
If Kaiser Permanente’s Fresno hospital had acted on complaints and kept a closer watch over its medical staff, two babies might still be alive, federal health inspectors concluded in a report released this week.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began investigating the hospital in October, two days after the Los Angeles Times reported that doctors and nurses had complained repeatedly to higher-ups about perinatologist Hamid Safari’s medical and interpersonal skills.
Rather than address their concerns, hospital leaders allowed Safari to continue treating high-risk pregnant women without restriction, staffers told the newspaper.
Safari allegedly botched at least two deliveries after staff members had raised concerns. One baby died in the delivery room; another, months after her birth.
In its report, the Medicare agency criticized the way Kaiser Fresno responded to those deliveries, both of which were detailed in The Times story. At least one staffer told inspectors that Kaiser had received complaints about Safari as far back as 1998.
In a written response to the report, Kaiser Fresno administrator Susan Ryan defended the hospital’s quality oversight program and said officials took appropriate action after Safari’s alleged mistakes.
In a statement to The Times on Friday, Ryan said, “These are difficult and emotional situations, and we empathize with all involved. When these events occurred, they were thoroughly investigated and corrective actions were taken. This has led to significant improvements in our perinatal safety program.”
In one of the two cases cited by inspectors, Safari waited more than three hours before he performed a caesarean section on a patient in 2004 — even though there was clear evidence that her baby was in distress, the report said. The baby was severely deprived of oxygen and died months later.
One Kaiser nurse told inspectors that she fruitlessly voiced concerns about the baby’s condition to Safari, and that after the delivery, the perinatologist “was hounding nurses” and telling them how to describe the incident in the medical records.
Another staffer told inspectors there was a “violation of common sense and standard of practice” during that delivery.
In the other case, in April 2005, Safari allegedly severed the spinal cord of a baby after repeatedly and vigorously attempting to draw him out with a vacuum extractor. When the baby finally emerged, he was “white as a sheet” and unresponsive, staffers told inspectors. He died.
A clinical summary documented that the baby “had a good fetal heart rate up to the time of delivery,” the Medicare report said.
One nurse told inspectors that after the baby was pronounced dead, Safari was “angry and yelled at everyone else saying it was their fault.” Safari then “harassed” staff members and told them what to write in the medical records, the nurse said.
In July 2005, three months after the second baby’s death, Kaiser imposed restrictions on Safari, barring him from performing vaginal deliveries and requiring him to be monitored by another physician or advanced-practice nurse. The restrictions became permanent last April, hospital officials said.
Since September, Safari has not performed any surgeries or c-sections and has served only as a consultant at the hospital, Ryan wrote Friday.
The federal report refers to additional guidelines that had been put in place for Safari, including a rule that he make his rounds with a high-risk nurse specialist. But nurses told inspectors that Safari did not follow those rules, and the hospital did nothing about it.
One perinatal nurse said Safari’s failure to comply “was a serious and significant problem with potential negative impact” on his patients. The federal report concluded that Kaiser’s failure to hold Safari accountable “placed patients at risk.”
In her statement to The Times, Ryan wrote that the hospital “will take further steps to ensure Dr. Safari is accompanied during rounds.”
The federal report is the latest in a series of critical assessments of Safari, Kaiser Fresno and the giant HMO itself, the nation’s largest, with 6.5 million members in California.
In September, the state medical board accused Safari of gross negligence, seeking to revoke or suspend his license. And Kaiser’s handling of the matter is the subject of a civil lawsuit filed by two doctors who claim they were punished for raising concerns about the April 2005 incident in which the baby died. Kaiser denies the allegations.
Safari’s lawyer, Stephen D. Schear, said he believes his client will be exonerated. He also speculated that the federal report was based on “bad information” from the same sources who talked to the medical board and perhaps The Times.
“This is all just a tragic smearing of a very excellent doctor by people who had motivation and the means to ruin his reputation without basis,” Schear said.
Previously:
Kaiser covers up for another negligent doctor, whistleblowers retaliated against — AGAIN
“two babies might still be alive”… My heart goes out to the very unfortunate families that lost their precious Babies. I will say this again, Safari and the way Kaiser reacted is not an isolated incident. If the federal investigators will dig a little deeper they will see what a bunch of mass murderers this organization really is.
“Safari?s lawyer, Stephen D. Schear, said he believes his client will be exonerated. He also speculated that the federal report was based on ?bad information? from the same sources who talked to the medical board and perhaps The Times.”
Bad information?! What a nut. How much proof will it take? How many more babies would have to die before this nut lawyer would realize that he is defending a murderer?
As usual, the murderers/defenders have kicked into overdrive to cover their butts. It’s going to take alot more lies to cover up these vicious actions.
Is the veil finally starting to lift, perhaps?
I applaud the two Physicians who stood up for what is right. To have the ethics and morals to do that in the face of evil shows *they* do take their Hippocratic Oath seriously.
Shame on the other “Physicians” who saw what was being done, as well as the “Nurses” who also saw, and chose to say NOTHING until an investigation occurred.
When is the D.A.’s Office going to get involved with these criminal coverups by Kaiser Executives?
What those Executives (as well as the Physicians and other staff who said nothing) have done is tantamount to being accomplices to murder.
We need to start writing the D.A.’s Office to ‘push’ for justice!!…..I know I will….when they get enough of an outcry, the D.A.’s Office will respond to the voice of the people to do what is right.
I see the Kaiser Fresno Administrator has stepped down.
http://www.latimes.com/…
Let’s hope Mr. George Halvorson is next.
Pingback: Administrator at Kaiser’s Fresno hospital steps down » Kaiser Permanente Thrive Exposed
“two babies might still be alive”–three if you count our daughter Lehna who died almost 2 years ago in Walnut Creek. Somebody please figure this out: Kaiser doesn’t care about patients. Period. Sad but, unfortunately, all too true.
Another Murderering M.D. at Kaiser is Christina Shen Bryant (reportedly an ob-gyn, surgeon). She practices (and i do mean practices) “medicine” at Kaiser’s Campbell Clinic.
*IF* you see her be sure to bring a tape recorder in to your meeting. SHE LIES!
If I had a taped recording of what she said to me (verus what she documented and then did to me) there is no doubt her license would be revoked.
Christina Shen Bryant is as ethical a Doctor as Dr Mengele and Dr Linda Hazzard.
Murder is most foul when done by someone pretending to be a care giver…..
Hopefully someone at Kaiser is reading this…..for this is one of their warnings about Christina Shen Bryant…..if they keep her on staff and do not report her to the California Medical Board for lying to her patients, her apparent need to play God, her lack of knowledge about standard of care treatment, her lack of knowledge regarding current research/reports, her INDEPENDENT and PURPOSEFUL maiming and murdering of her patients…..lawsuits will be forthcoming!
We’ll be watching and anticipating, please keep us posted kaiser victim!
I would like to share a snippet of information with everyone. I was present when one of the Kaiser physicians was talking about another Kaiser physician who left the organization recently. The physician who left was described as “worthless” – apparently he had a job in the Provider Service Center where he reportedly “did nothing”. Translation: he didn’t deny enough referrals, care, etc. For this reason he was “DEMOTED” and sent back to the clinic to work caring for patients at a substantial cut in pay. PLEASE hear this loud and clear —- taking care of patients is consider scut work by the organization!!!!! The patients don’t matter, only their premiums do!!! We need to shout this from the roof tops!!!
To Kaiser victim. You were not present in the room with Safari and do not know what the nurses tried to do nor do you know what the nurses did do. Nurses are just as vulnerable as the victim was in this case and were retaliated against for describing the scene in the room accurately and had do go underground and fight through their union the California Nurses Assosiation one of the strongest unions in our country.
This is a great site. I would think there would be more messages since February. I worked at Kaiser Sacramento from Dec 1970 until an unjust termination in Dec 1992. Kaiser was doing its best to eliminate the top tier employees. It seemed like most of those years were spent working a two or three person job, completely exhausted for too many years and I witnessed too many wrong doings to patients especially to elders. My heart went out to patients who had to sit for three hours for an x-ray and to terminal cancer patients who were subjected to a needless number of tests on a routine basis. Kaiser was and is high on the Federal dole. After my termination I tried to help other employees who went out the door with the help of the Union SEIU Local 250 that had the nerve to lie in court for Kaiser. There were very few success stories in the courts which I termed The Kaiser Kourts and after researching Kaiser for the last fifteen years that seems to reign true.
It is not my intent to defend Kaiser of any person. I would like to know how these published complaints compare with other medical service organizations of similar size delivering the same comprehensive services as Kaiser. Can anyone direct me to a source of such information? Thank you.
I don’t know of any direct comparisons, but there are other sites dedicated to the horrors of various insurance companies. Be wary of official quality data, which is bought and paid for by the companies being rated, and subject to manipulation.
The difference with Kaiser is that your doctor is employed by your insurance company and they are not paying him to be your advocate, but rather to spend the least amount of their money as possible treating or not treating patients as the case may be.
I AM A KAISER MEMBER AND I AM HEARTBROKEN WITH GRIEF DUE TO ME DELIVERING MY BABY STILLBORN MY DOCTOR REFUSE TO LISTEN TO ME WHEN I STATED SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE PREGNANCY. “TOO MUCH PRIDE I GUESS”I COMPLAINED TO MEMBER SERVICES AND TOLD THEM I WANTED TO CHANGE DOCTOR DUE TO HER NOT LOOKING INTO WHAT I COMPLAINED ABOUT THEN NOT EVEN TWO MONTHS LATER THIS HAPPEN!THIS DOCTORS ATTITUDE IS BAD SHE TALKS TO YOU ANY KIND OF WAY,AND SHE IS A BIT RACIST! I NEED AN ATTORNEY FOR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS!CAN SOMEONE REPRESENT ME AGAINST KAISER?ANY LEADS?
It cant be denied that every now and then you will find mediocre or stupid practitioners in Kaiser but this is not unique in KP alone. Other hospitals, even magnet hospitals, have some stupid doctors and Nurse Practitioners as well. The best advice is, if you think your doctor or NP is not working for your best interest, change them! Go to My Health Manager at http://www.KP.Org, and with a stroke of a key, you can easily change your provider! Or ask the nurses. Nurses are your advocates. They work for you not for the doctors.
Slight correction: All of the doctors and all of the nurses — smart, dumb and in between — work for Kaiser Permanente, a highly corrupt HMO. Whenever one of them is caught advocating for anyone but the organization that signs their paychecks, retaliation ensues.
And you ought to know, Jack the Kaiser employee, since you posted your comment from the following Kaiser IP address: 162.119.68.26
At about the same time:
Documents and evidences were presented to the
California Medical Board, accepted by :
Robert Sherer, Senior Investigator,
Office of Investigative Services
Medical Board of California in Sacramento.
First hearing : Feb. 26, 2008
Second Hearing: June 24, 2008
Both hearings tape-recorded by Bob Sherer,
each hearing lasted for two hours.
1. Falsification of Hospital Patient Medical
record performed by Robert S. Blum, M.D.,
a Neurosurgeon. He falsified Hospital record
of old lady to get money from her.
2. Hospital covered up for Dr. Blum.
3. Dr. Peter E. Philbin, a Nephrologist lied
under oath on witness stand during Judicial
Hearing, to cover up for Dr. Blum.
4. Dr. Leonard A. Brant, a Surgeon, lied while under oath on witness stand in the same Judicial Hearing.
5. Attorney Steven V. Schnier of San Francisco, hospital Attorney during the same hearing, committed 53 crimes of fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of Justice and violation of Federal Civil Rights during that same Judicial Hearing.
6. After the hearing, Hospital and Medical Staff declared in writing that the hearing never took place.
7. The 53 crimes were witnessed by nine ( 9 )
CA licensed practicing physicians, and these
were instantly recorded by the official court
transcriber in the 100-page transcript of that hearing.
For details, read at :
http://www.crimevictimspress.com
http://www.googleblog.blogspot.com/LinoDial
http://www.Facebook.com/LinoDial
http://www.Twitter.com/LinoDial
1. Hospital Cover up of 53 Crimes in Solano County, California.
2. Feb. 26, 2008, evidences and documents presented at tape-recorded investigation in California Medical Board. Robert Sherer , senior Investigator of CA Med Board tape-recorded the two-hour investigation.
Dr. Robert Zeff was the Medical Consultant for the California Medical Board.
3. June 24, 2008, more evidences presented to
CA Med. Board, tape-recorded by Mr. Sherer.
Dr. Yap was Medical Consultant for the CA Med
Board during the second hearing.
4. Dec. 23, 2008, Governor Jerry Brown, then
CA Attorney General, together with Supervising Deputy Attorney General Gail M. Heppell signed the CA Dept. of Justice Court
Order No. 02 – 2007 – 183327
to investigate the victim instead of the Hospital, Doctors and Lawyer.
sirs: I was dumped by two doctors at Kaiser Hawaii. There replacement was a person whom cannot be trusted. I ran a criminal background check and I was surprised! Most of my visits where tape recorded and the professional did not like it! Kaiser mention that all calls are monitored when you call 4325600 for training and monitoring services, THIS IS A VIOLATION OR MY RIGHTS TO ALLOW OR NOT TO ALLOW A CALL. federal law requires that an ADA whom has Alzheimer beginnings that protects a patient on visits when there is no sign posted of no electronic recording is allowed in the office. This action by your doctors violated ADA Tittle 11 of the 42 USCA……