KAISER PERMANENTE: RETHINKS STRATEGY IN CALIFORNIA
"Kaiser Permanente is rethinking its revolutionary plans toThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
create alliances with other health care systems from the Bay Area
to Sacramento and Los Angeles," San Francisco Business Times
reports. The company has "postponed plans to form" an alliance
in Los Angeles with San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West,
"as it reevaluates a hastily decided statewide strategy of de-
emphasizing homegrown inpatient care and forming alliances with
other systems." Kaiser spokesperson Katherine Saux said, "We've
had to slow it down and decide what we as a company can
operationally handle. ... We had to cease discussions around the
original proposal about two or three weeks ago. We basically had
to start over again."
LA DREAMS
One plan was for inpatient care at Kaiser's Sunset Boulevard
hospital in Los Angeles to be transferred to CHW's 380-bed St.
Vincent Hospital. These plans have been put on hold, along with
plans for CHW's possible operating of the Baldwin Park Medical
Center. However, CHW spokesperson Debbie Cantu said, "Both
parties have agreed this alliance is crucial to their futures."
CHW officials said that Kaiser still plans to move patients, "but
that rapid growth in Kaiser's Los Angeles enrollment base may
necessitate extensive construction work at St. Vincent" to
accommodate nearly 500 patients per day. Both sides say the
transfer will not "take place for four to six years."
BAY AREA PLANS
In the San Francisco area, "plans to move Kaiser maternity
patients to Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley are still
alive." However, the plan has been awaiting regulatory approval
from the state Department of Corporations since the summer. In
addition, a deal that would send Kaiser maternity patients to
Oakland's Summit Medical Center "is proceeding." However, other
Bay-area alliances "appear to be dead for now." This includes a
deal that would have closed Kaiser's Redwood City medical center
and sent the patients to CHW's Sequoia Hospital. Other alliances
put on hold include deals with Sutter Health, CHW and
Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. "that could have closed aging
hospitals, precluded the need for Kaiser to build new inpatient
facilities, or provided partners to help Kaiser open brand-new,
but virtually empty acute-care hospitals" in Fremont and suburban
Sacramento.
FUTURE PLANS
According to the Business Times, Kaiser officials admit they
"underestimated the difficulty of reengineering its own system
while negotiating highly complex deals with other health care
systems." Kaiser launched its alliance strategy at about the
same time it "attempted to restructure its Northern California
operations and merge them with its Southern California operating
unit." Saux said, "When we kicked this off, we grossly
underestimated the complexity (of the effort)" (Rauber, 10/20
issue).