Kaiser Kidney Program Patients’ Transfers Delays
Transferring patients from Kaiser Permanente's Northern California kidney transplant program to programs at University of California-Davis and UC-San Francisco medical centers will delay the complete transfer to the end of the year, according to Department of Managed Health Care officials, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Officials originally predicted that it would take six weeks to transfer all patients from the Kaiser program but now say that preparing patients and their records for transfer has taken more time than expected. Some patients needed updated tests and medical records had to be standardized, according to DMHC spokesperson Lynn Randolph (Weber/Ornstein, Los Angeles Times, 8/4).
Kaiser announced in May that it will close its kidney transplant center. Several news reports alleged program mismanagement that compromised patient care (California Healthline, 7/31).
To date, 231 of about 2,000 patients on Kaiser's kidney waiting list have been transferred to a UC program.
A person familiar with the matter said DMHC also plans to impose a "record-breaking" fine against Kaiser for problems in the program, the Times reports. The largest fine collected by the agency was $1 million in 2002, also against Kaiser (Los Angeles Times, 8/4).