Sick System

Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of the Los Angeles Times have come up with a couple of excellent stories this week investigating troubles in northern California with HMO giant Kaiser Permanente. In yesterday's story, Weber and Ornstein detail how Kaiser forced 1,500 patients awaiting kidney transplants to transfer to a new, untested transplant center run by Kaiser itself rather than use successful established programs. As a result, patients ended up on one of the longest waiting lists in the country and their odds of getting a new kidney dropped. Today's story shows how the snafus with the start-up of Kaiser's new transplant program resulted in 25 patients not getting a chance to receive nearly perfectly matched new kidneys.
Ornstein and Weber used statistical analyses, confidential documents and dozens of interviews to report these stories of a big company endangering the lives of ill people.
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kaiser3may03,0,7877009.story?track=tottext
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kaiser4may04,0,335770.story?page=1&track=tottext