KAISER HOSPITALS: PASS NEW HEALTH AND SAFETY INSPECTION

      Federal investigators gave two Kaiser Permanente hospitals
 in California "a clean bill of health" after a June 19
 reinspection.  San Francisco Chronicle reports that federal
 investigators last month found "numerous serious problems" at the
 Richmond and Oakland hospitals, including "inadequate nursing
 staff in the critical care units at both hospitals and inordinate
 waits for ambulance transfers."
 The report additionally found unsafe and "sloppy procedures" in
 the hospital wards (see AHL 6/4).  Chronicle reports that "Kaiser
 came under government scrutiny earlier this year after three
 patients died waiting to be transferred from the Richmond
 hospital."
      TAKE TWO
      The reinspection team found that Kaiser had corrected the
 deficiencies and brought the HMO "back into compliance with
 standards for receiving federal funding," which means that
 "Kaiser is no longer in danger of losing millions of dollars in
 Medicare funds."  Wayne Moon, director of Hospital and Community
 Care Operations for the Health Care Financing Administration,
 said, "It is the consensus of the team that there's been a
 significant improvement in the quality of care available,
 especially at Richmond."  Kaiser now has an ambulance "standing
 by at Richmond" and more nurses and respiratory therapists have
 been hired.  Kaiser hospitals in Walnut Creek and Martinez, CA,
 are also under federal scrutiny after "complaints that seriously
 ill patients waited too long for care" (Herscher, 7/2).