KAISER PERMANENTE: WILL TAKE ACTION TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE
Officials with the Health Care Financing Administration haveThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
released a report critical of Kaiser Permanente's patient care.
The report, which outlines problems discovered during an
unannounced inspection in March of two of the company's Northern
California hospitals, cites "inexplicable delays in transferring
patients, short staffing and inadequate quality-control
procedures," Los Angeles Times reports. HCFA officials said that
Kaiser, which faced the potential loss of federal dollars at the
hospitals, "has taken corrective actions." A follow-up
inspection is planned for sometime within the next few weeks
(Olmos, 6/4).
LABOR RELATIONS: By almost a nine-to-one margin, AFL-CIO
union locals representing 50,000 Kaiser workers voted "to approve
a new labor-management partnership agreement." According to the
Los Angeles Times, the new labor agreement calls for the health
care giant and the labor unions to work together "to improve
patient care." The labor pact also calls "for Kaiser management
to remain neutral on new union organizing activities at Kaiser
facilities and to give union workers more involvement in decision
making" (Olmos, 6/4).