Contra Costa Herald

News Of By and For The People of Contra Costa County, California

Kaiser Permanente Diablo earns East Bay Leadership Medal

By Leave a Comment

East Bay Leadership Council CEO Mark Orcutt presents Marty Ardron, Kaiser Permanente SVP Hospital and Health Plan Operations and Sharon Mowat, Physician in Chief of Kaiser’s Antioch Medical Center with the East Bay Leadership Medal during the dinner on August 9, 2023. Photo: East Bay Leadership Council

By East Bay Leadership Council

During the East Bay Leadership Council’s Installation Awards dinner on August 9, 2023 Kaiser Permanente Diablo was presented with the East Bay Leadership Medal. It is the highest honor to an organization recognizing outstanding service in support of the Council and the broader East Bay community. Kaiser Permanente currently is the third East Bay employer to receive this honor twice since the award was founded in 1987.

Kaiser Permanente Diablo includes locations in Antioch, Dublin, Livermore, Martinez, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Walnut Creek.

The Council offered the following about the honorees and the evening: “Kaiser Permanente is not only a world-class health system and one of the East Bay’s largest employers, but a force for generosity spanning from affordable housing construction to gun violence prevention. On top of it all, Kaiser has supported the East Bay Leadership Council’s mission through sponsorships and staff volunteerism that continues to expand our impact and reach as an organization. We are honored to present Kaiser with our top organizational award.”

Kaiser Permanente staff with the East Bay Leadership Medal include (L-R) Cherlene Andresen, Public Affairs Manager, Daniel Mejia, Senior Public Affairs Representative, Michelle Mendoza, Communications Lead, Marta Hudson, Continuum Administrator, Sharon Mowat, Sharon Mowat, Physician in Chief, Antioch Medical Center, Avin Attur, Area Information Officer, Marty Ardron, SVP Hospital and Health Plan Operations, Yvette Radford, Vice President, External & Community Affairs, Linsey Dicks, Medical Group Administrator, Pam Galley, SVP & Area Manager and Deneen Wohlford, Public Affairs Director.

The sold-out event featured inspiring words from the honorees — Chadi Chazbek, Bielle Moore, and Kaiser Permanente — who have all been influential in fostering a thriving East Bay community.

In his opening remarks, EBLC’s President & CEO, Mark Orcutt, shared what is at the heart of the EBLC community, “You would not be here tonight if you were hopeless and disinterested in taking on the challenges we face as a region. You are here because you believe as I do that a group of well-informed and driven leaders can change the world.”

Past Chair Leo Scott passed the baton to Peggy White, who expressed why she is excited to take on the role of Chair of the Board, “The hallmark of my career has been putting my passion and energy into causes that I care deeply about. And I care deeply about the Council’s mission to make the region a better place to live and work.”

It was an inspiring and heartwarming evening, full of appreciation and recognition for the important work being done to make the East Bay a place where businesses and residents thrive.

Thank you to our sponsors for making this uplifting event possible and thank you to our board and community members for your ongoing commitment to EBLC. We are excited for the year ahead!

More information about the East Bay Leadership Council Awards night can be viewed here: https://eastbayleadershipcouncil.com/news/installation-awards-recap-photos-and-more

For more information about the EBLC visit East Bay Leadership Council.

Allen D. Payton and Antonia Ehlers of Kaiser Permanente contributed to this report.

CA Attorney General announces $49 million settlement with Kaiser for illegal disposal of hazardous & medical waste, patient info

By Leave a Comment

Kaiser responds

OAKLAND – In partnership with six district attorneys, California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday, Sept. 8, announced a settlement with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (collectively “Kaiser”) resolving allegations that the healthcare provider unlawfully disposed of hazardous waste, medical waste, and protected health information at Kaiser facilities statewide. As part of the settlement, Kaiser will be liable for a total of $49 million and be required to take significant steps to prevent future unlawful disposals.

“The illegal disposal of hazardous and medical waste puts the environment, workers, and the public at risk. It also violates numerous federal and state laws,” said Bonta. “As a healthcare provider, Kaiser should know that it has specific legal obligations to properly dispose of medical waste and safeguard patients’ medical information. I am pleased that Kaiser has been cooperative with my office and the district attorneys’ offices, and that it took immediate action to address the alleged violations.”

The settlement is the result of undercover inspections conducted by the district attorneys’ offices of dumpsters from 16 different Kaiser facilities. During those inspections, the district attorneys’ offices reviewed the contents of unsecured dumpsters destined for disposal at publicly accessible landfills, finding hundreds of items of hazardous and medical waste (aerosols, cleansers, sanitizers, batteries, electronic wastes, syringes, medical tubing with body fluids, and pharmaceuticals) and over 10,000 paper records containing the information of over 7,700 patients. The California Department of Justice subsequently joined the district attorneys and expanded the investigation of Kaiser’s disposal practices further throughout the state. In response to this joint law enforcement investigation, Kaiser immediately hired a third-party consultant and conducted over 1,100 trash audits at its facilities in an effort to improve compliance. Kaiser also modified its operating procedures to improve its handling, storage, and disposal of waste.

Kaiser is headquartered in Oakland, California and operates over 700 facilities statewide, making it the largest healthcare provider in California. Kaiser provides healthcare to approximately 8.8 million Californians, as well as members of the public who seek emergency care from Kaiser facilities. In announcing the settlement, Attorney General Bonta was joined by the district attorneys of Alameda, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, and Yolo counties.

“As a major corporation in Alameda County, Kaiser Permanente has a special obligation to treat its communities with the same bedside manner as its patients,” said Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. “Dumping medical waste and private information are wrong, which they have acknowledged. This action will hold them accountable in such a way that we hope means it doesn’t happen again.”

“I am confident that this case shows the residents of San Bernardino County that our Office will not stand by as hospitals and other medical clinics dispose of medical waste including biohazards, hazardous waste and personal health information into our landfills, jeopardizing medical confidentiality,” said San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson. “Deputy District Attorney’s Stephanie Weissman and Supervising Deputy District Attorney Doug Poston dedicated years of their time and expertise to ensure the residents of our County are protected from the mishandling of medical waste and Kaiser policies are improved to safeguard the public moving forward.”

“My office takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. “Hazardous waste, medical waste, and confidential patient information must be disposed of properly. When it is not, we will not hesitate to take action. Protecting patient privacy and the environment is just as important as protecting public safety.”

“This resolution further protects the health and safety of the residents of San Joaquin County and the state as a whole,” said San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas. “The unlawful disposal of hazardous medical waste has no place in this county, or any county, and the mishandling of confidential patient information will not be tolerated. The settlement with Kaiser places the appropriate safeguards to ensure that this never happens again.”

“As the largest healthcare provider in the state, Kaiser has an extraordinary responsibility to the public and to its own patients to ensure that hazardous waste, potentially infectious human waste materials, and highly sensitive patient health information are handled according to state laws and not sent to municipal landfills not equipped to handle those wastes,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe. “Our Environmental Unit continues to work with San Mateo County environmental regulators and colleagues across the state to investigate and prosecute entities that break the law and endanger the environment.”

As part of the settlement, Kaiser:

  • Will pay $47.250 million. That amount includes $37,513,000 in civil penalties; $4,832,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs; and $4,905,000 for supplemental environmental projects, primarily environmental prosecutor training.
  • Must pay an additional $1.75 million in civil penalties if, within 5 years of the entry of the final judgment, Kaiser has not spent $3.5 million at its California facilities to implement enhanced environmental compliance measures to ensure compliance with relevant provisions of the law that are alleged to have been violated.
  • Must retain an independent third-party auditor — approved by the Attorney General’s Office and the district attorneys — who will: perform no less than 520 trash compactor audits at Kaiser’s California facilities to help ensure that regulated wastes (including items containing protected health information) are not unlawfully disposed of; and conduct at least 40 programmatic field audits each year, for a period of five years after entry of the final judgment, to evaluate Kaiser’s compliance with policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws related to hazardous waste, medical waste, and protected health information.

Kaiser’s unlawful disposals are alleged to violate California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Customer Records Law, and Unfair Competition Law. The disposals are also alleged to violate the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, known as HIPAA.

In 2014, the California Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Kaiser after it delayed notifying its employees about an unencrypted USB drive that was discovered at a Santa Cruz thrift store. The USB drive contained over 20,000 employee records. Kaiser paid $150,000 in penalties and attorneys’ fees, and agreed to comply with California’s data breach notification law in the future, provide notification of any future breach on a rolling basis, and implement additional training regarding the sensitive nature of employee records. In addition, Kaiser has been the subject of prior enforcement actions by local prosecutors for mismanagement of regulated wastes.

A copy of the complaint and proposed stipulated judgment, which details the aforementioned settlement terms and remains subject to court approval, can be found here and here.

Kaiser Issues Statement in Response

Kaiser responded with the following statement:

“Kaiser Permanente is committed to the health and well-being of our members, patients, employees, physicians, and the communities we serve, which includes proper waste disposal and protecting the confidentiality of member and patient information. Millions of people receive care and support in our hundreds of medical facilities across California each year and we have well-established policies and procedures for disposing of the different kinds of resulting waste items.

About six years ago we became aware of occasions when, contrary to our rigorous policies and procedures, some facilities’ landfill-bound dumpsters included items that should have been disposed of differently. Upon learning of this issue, we immediately completed an extensive auditing effort of the waste stream at our facilities and established mandatory and ongoing training to address the findings. All Kaiser Permanente staff and physicians in California take this required annual training. We also introduced specialized equipment, instructions, and receptacles placed closest to where waste is generated to ensure all types of waste are disposed of properly, and we introduced more environmentally friendly products to enhance our long-standing environmental compliance measures.

We take this matter extremely seriously and have taken full responsibility to acknowledge and, in cooperation with the California Attorney General and county district attorneys, correct our performance regarding landfill-bound trash where it may have fallen short of our standards. We dedicated many hours to identifying and closing gaps to strengthen our regulated waste disposal program and are confident in our ability not only to meet the monitoring and reporting requirements of this settlement, but to comply with the numerous requirements that apply to the different kinds of waste that result from caring for millions of Californians.

In order to address this issue, Kaiser Permanente developed a three-step approach that includes:

  1. Assessment of hospitals, medical office buildings, and other facilities to identify the types of waste generated and to provide the right receptacles so that it is as easy and convenient as possible for our staff and physicians to dispose of waste in the appropriate receptacles;
  2. Worksite rounding to observe disposal techniques and to provide just-in-time training to ensure compliance with proper practices; and
  3. Training, which every employee and physician in California is required to participate in annually, on proper waste disposal processes.

We are not aware of body parts being found at any time during this investigation. There were isolated examples of what appeared to be small amounts of tissue debris.”

 

Learn about dementia Thursday, Sept. 7

By 1 Comment

Join Tre Vista Antioch’s free virtual event: Understanding and Navigating Late Stage Dementia

Dementia has several stages, each with its own set of challenges. Late-stage dementia, in particular, requires a caregiver to adjust their communication and the care they provide. Join our community for a special virtual presentation featuring presenter Erinn Drouin, Community Educator with the Alzheimer’s Association of Nebraska. Erinn will teach you how to better connect and care for your loved one with late-stage dementia.

, , 4:00-5:00 p.m. (Pacific)

: bit.ly/TreVistaEvent

* Once you have registered, an email with a link to join the Zoom will be sent to your email before the event starts.

For more information, contact TreVista Antioch at 925-470-3395 or Antioch@agemark.commailto:Antioch@agemark.com.

 

Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center recognized for providing exceptional maternity care

By 2 Comments

The California 2023 Maternity Care Honor Roll recognizes hospitals that met or surpassed the statewide target to reduce births via cesarean section in first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies

Sutter Delta Medical Center, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center also make list

By Antonia Ehlers, PR & Media Relations, Kaiser Permanente Northern California

Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center is one of 107 hospitals named to the California 2023 Maternity Care Honor Roll for meeting the statewide target of cesarean sections for low-risk births leading to improved health outcomes for mothers and their newborns.

Childbirth is the number one reason for hospitalization in the U.S., according to the California Health Care Foundation.  Overuse of C-sections can lead to serious health complications for both mother and baby and unnecessary C-sections are also considered a health equity issue since rates are higher among people of color.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California is a leader in innovative approaches to maternal care and is working to improve equity in maternal health. Our hospitals are among the best in the country for meeting rigorous standards for maternity care, including low C-section rates, elective early deliveries, and for following important protocols to safely protect new mothers and their babies.

As part of our comprehensive prenatal care, our care teams work closely with our patients to deliver high-quality maternity care and reduce the risk of complications. If pregnant patients have a high-risk pregnancy or a chronic condition such as high blood pressure, we tailor their care to reduce risks. And mothers who choose to breastfeed get the support they need to be successful.

Last year, 43,177 babies were delivered at Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals.

“Kaiser Permanente is a leader in providing exceptional maternity care that provides new families with the support they need,” said Pam Galley, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente’s Diablo service area. “We are committed to providing our members and patients with high-quality, equitable maternal health care.”

The 107 hospitals on the honor roll represent half of all 211 California hospitals that offer maternity services and participate in the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative’s Maternal Data Center.

Reducing C-section rates starts with the culture of the hospital, involving changes to physician practice patterns, education of nurses, support staff and families, and implementation of new policies within the facility, according to Cal Hospital Compare, which publishes the maternity care honor roll.

“Our Kaiser Permanente clinicians are committed to providing the best outcomes for our families as they entrust us with their care,” said Sharon Mowat, MD, physician in chief at Kaiser Permanente’s Antioch Medical Center. “We strive every day to provide the support these new families need as they begin this life-changing journey.”

In 2015, the California Health and Human Services Agency began recognizing hospitals that meet the 23.9% statewide target of C-sections for low-risk births through its Maternity Honor Roll. Beginning this year, CHC changed the C-section rate threshold for honor roll hospitals from 23.9% to 23.6% to align with the Healthy People 2030 goals. This year’s award reflects calendar year 2022 hospital discharge and birth certificate data.

Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch and the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez also made the 2023 Honor Roll list For more information on the California 2023 Maternity Care Honor Roll visit https://calhospitalcompare.org/programs/maternity-care-honor-roll/

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

Kaiser Permanente issues statement on threatened strike

By 2 Comments

By Antonia Ehlers, PR & Media Relations, Kaiser Permanente Northern California

Kaiser Permanente is the largest union-represented health care employer in the U.S. – with nearly 75 percent of our employees represented by unions. We are currently bargaining with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents about 88,000 employees in a variety of roles. The Coalition is part of our historic, 26-year-long Labor Management Partnership, the longest-lasting partnership of its kind in the country.

Kaiser Permanente is fully committed to reaching an agreement with the unions affiliated with the Coalition just as we have done in every national bargaining since 1999. Our priority is to reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial and ensures we can continue to offer our people market-competitive pay and outstanding benefits. We are confident that we will reach an agreement that achieves that goal, before the contract expires on September 30. And we are confident that our new agreement will strengthen our position as a best place to work and ensure the high-quality care our members expect from us remains affordable and easy to access.

Strike Authorization Vote

Strike authorizations are a common bargaining pressure tactic that give union leaders the ability to call for a strike in the future. Throughout our negotiations we have seen Coalition leaders attempt to rally their unions’ members to threaten a strike despite important progress made through negotiations.

This tactic does not reflect any breakdown in bargaining, nor does it indicate a strike is imminent or will happen at all. It is a disappointing action considering our progress at the bargaining table. It does not reflect our commitment to reaching an agreement that ensures we can continue to provide market-competitive pay and outstanding benefits.

We urge our employees to reject any call for a strike and continue to focus on providing care and service to the patients who need them. We take any threat to disrupt care for our members seriously and have plans to ensure continued access to health care by our members, patients, and the communities we serve, should any union call for a strike. Our members, patients, and our communities need us to be there for them.

Allegations of Unfair Labor Practices

From the start, we have bargained in good faith to come to an agreement, working diligently in partnership to address the many complex issues at the table. This week, over the course of our sixth formal negotiation session since national bargaining began in April, we offered proposals on important issues including improvements to the performance sharing bonus plan (PSP) and an enterprise-wide guaranteed minimum wage for our Coalition-represented employees. In addition, committees met on staffing, operational savings, and local bargaining agreements.

As always, one of the key issues in this bargaining involves compensation and Kaiser Permanente has made clear we are standing by our proven commitment to provide market-competitive wages and excellent benefits. In fact, as a leading employer, our philosophy is to pay our employees above the local market, to attract and retain the best employees.

Bargaining is dynamic and involves give-and-take. Accusations from union leaders that Kaiser Permanente has not bargained in good faith are unfounded and counterproductive.

We take bargaining seriously and believe that our employees deserve market competitive wages and excellent benefits. We are hopeful union leaders will set aside the counterproductive tactics of this week, so we can focus on working together to deliver an agreement. We remain committed to bargaining with our Coalition unions in good faith and in the spirit of partnership. We will focus our energy on frank and productive discussions that lead to an agreement, and to doing our part to ensure there are no disruptions to the high-quality care we provide.

Staffing

We, like all health care organizations, have experienced staffing challenges driven by the pandemic and its lasting effects. For healthcare systems this has been made worse by the backlog in care and the increase in needs and acuity we’re seeing across the country.

While Kaiser Permanente has experienced the same pressures, through diligent work and an unwavering commitment to our people, we have weathered these staffing challenges better than most health care organizations. Kaiser Permanente’s average employee turnover rate of 8.5 percent, as of June 2023, is significantly lower than the rate of 21.4 percent across health care. Talented people who recognize the value of our current wage and benefit offerings want to work at Kaiser Permanente, which is why about 96 percent of candidates for Coalition-represented positions accept our employment offers—significantly above the industry average.

Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition have agreed to work together to accelerate hiring, and we set a joint goal in bargaining of hiring 10,000 new people for Coalition-represented jobs in 2023. Kaiser Permanente’s efforts to date have resulted in more than 6,500 positions filled, and we are aggressively recruiting to fill more.

Our staffing approach reflects our shared commitment to ensure every Kaiser Permanente patient receives extraordinary care, every time and in every place.

Wages and Benefits

We are leaders in employee wages and benefits, and we have reiterated our commitment in bargaining to continuing to provide market-competitive wages and outstanding benefits. In fact, our philosophy is to deliver compensation that provides wages above the local market (up to 10 percent above market) to attract and retain the best employees.

Kaiser Permanente also offers employees opportunities to learn new skills and grow their careers, and we’re committed to providing a safe and equitable work environment. In addition, we want to ensure that we help our employees build long-term economic security with low-cost health insurance, industry-leading retirement plans, and other benefit programs to support their health and well-being.

It’s also worth remembering that during the pandemic, we took extraordinary steps to support and protect our workforce, and to support their mental as well as physical health. We provided $800 million in employee assistance to ensure that front-line employees had access to alternate housing options, special child care grants, and additional paid leave for COVID-19 illness and exposure.

The unions’ current negotiating position is that wage increases should not be market-based. This prevents us from addressing wage disparities that exist in in many of Kaiser Permanente’s markets where, for some jobs, wages are significantly higher than our targeted wage level, and in other cases our employees’ wages are below other competitors in the market, impacting our ability to attract and retain the best people.

While being a best-in-class employer is a fundamental part of who we are, we cannot continue a national approach for determining wages and ignore local market conditions. We also have a responsibility to make health care more affordable for our patients, members, and customers, including government agencies. For many families and businesses, health care costs are increasingly unaffordable, and growing. Wages and benefits make up about half the cost of health care, across the country. We must work together with unions on the critical goal of ensuring that health care remains affordable.

We are committed to our philosophy of providing market-competitive pay and excellent benefits, and we’ve made that clear in bargaining. We are committed to addressing areas where staffing is challenging, and we are making great progress. And we are committed to doing all this while striving to help health care be more affordable.

 

Labor’s next big fight in the Bay Area: Largest single-employer union negotiation in the U.S. inches closer to strike

By Leave a Comment

85,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers to hold strike authorization vote Monday over what they claim are unfair labor practices, say chronic under-staffing is driving a growing patient care crisis

By Renée Saldaña, Press Secretary, SEUI – United Healthcare Workers West

A strike may be looming at one of the nation’s largest employers.

On Monday August 28, Kaiser workers in California, including Antioch, will start to vote to authorize a strike over unfair labor practices. The voting ends September 12th.   The unions will strike dates soon after we get the results of the vote. The contract expires for a large bulk of the Kaiser workers in the coalition (58,000) on September 30th, so a strike could potentially start as early as October 1.

We are expecting a majority of the workers to vote in favor of a strike. We will keep you posted on any other developments.

On Thursday, August 24, healthcare workers employed by Kaiser Permanente announced details of a potential strike authorization vote at a hybrid in-person and virtual press conference.

Following the UPS labor settlement with the Teamsters, the labor negotiations covering 85,000 Kaiser healthcare workers – represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions – have now become the largest single-employer labor negotiations occurring in the United States. The Coalition unites healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California, Colorado, Oregon, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington.

At issue, healthcare workers say, are a series of unfair labor practices related to contract bargaining, along with simmering staff concerns related to unsafe staffing levels that can lead to dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnosis, and neglect.

If Kaiser executives don’t take swift action to rectify the unfair labor practices that detailed at the press conference, workers say they’ll have no choice but to strike. Workers also say the company needs to immediately and substantively address the growing care crisis at its hospitals and clinics.

Barring a breakthrough in the ongoing negotiations including a resolution of the unfair labor practices in question, the healthcare workers announced the strike authorization vote date and plans.

“Kaiser cannot keep bargaining in bad faith and committing unfair labor practices. Kaiser is facing chronic under-staffing because workers can’t afford to live in LA on the low wages they pay us,” said Miriam de la Paz, a unit secretary at Kaiser Permanente in Downey, California. “If Kaiser’s millionaire executives won’t work with us on a plan to hire more people so we can give every patient the attention they deserve, we’re prepared to vote for an unfair labor practice strike.”

“We want Kaiser to stop committing unfair labor practices, and bargain in good faith. It’s heartbreaking to see our patients suffer from long wait times for the care they need, all because Kaiser won’t put patient and worker safety first,” said Paula Coleman, a clinical laboratory assistant at Kaiser Permanente in Englewood, Colorado. “We will have no choice but to vote to strike if Kaiser won’t let us give patients the quality care they deserve.”

“Our patients expect more from a healthcare system that reported $3 billion in profits in the first half of this year alone, and so do we,” said Nahid Bokaee, a Pharmacist in Sterling, Virginia. “Kaiser can afford to end this dangerous understaffing, but they choose not to. For the sake of our patients and our colleagues, we’re prepared to authorize a strike because Kaiser cannot keep bargaining in bad faith and committing unfair labor practices.”

BACKGROUND

The Kaiser healthcare workers are members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents more than 85,000 healthcare workers in seven states and the District of Columbia. In April, the Coalition began its national bargaining process. The Coalition and Kaiser Permanente last negotiated a contract in 2019, before healthcare workers found themselves on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic that has worsened working conditions and exacerbated a healthcare staffing crisis.

Tensions have been rising as the workers’ contract expiration looms. Earlier this month tens of thousands of healthcare workers picketed Kaiser hospitals across the U.S. to protest the company’s growing care crisis.

Workers say that Kaiser is committing unfair labor practices and also that under-staffing is boosting Kaiser’s profits but hurting patients. In a recent survey of 33,000 employees, two-thirds of workers said they’d seen care delayed or denied due to short staffing. After three years of the COVID pandemic and chronic understaffing, healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente are calling on management to provide safe staffing levels.

Even as some frontline healthcare heroes live in their cars and patients wait longer for care, Kaiser released new financials this month indicating they made ​​$3 billion in profit in just the first six months of this year. Despite being a non-profit organization – which means it pays no income taxes on its earnings and extremely limited property taxes – Kaiser has reported more than $24 billion in profit over the last five years. Kaiser’s CEO was compensated more than $16 million in 2021, and forty-nine executives at Kaiser are compensated more than $1 million annually. Kaiser Permanente has investments of $113 billion in the US and abroad, including in fossil fuels, casinos, for-profit prisons, alcohol companies, military weapons and more.

 

 

Kaiser eye doctor helps man see straight for first time since childhood

By 3 Comments

Patient Kyle Emard with Kaiser Permanente ophthalmologist Dr. Daniel Greninger. Photo by Allen D. Payton

“Strabismus” could affect as many as 30,000 people in Contra Costa and is correctable

“I look at the picture and go ‘wow’! I just feel good.” – patient Kyle Emard

“It’s an out-patient surgery. You go home the same day.” – Dr. Daniel Greninger

By Allen D. Payton

After living with being both cross-eyed and deaf for most of his life, 49-year-old Kyle Emard can now see straight thanks to the talent and skills of Kaiser Permanente ophthalmologist, Dr. Daniel Greninger, whose office is in Antioch. He corrected Emard’s vision impairment known as strabismus.

“After I was born my eyes would look straight ahead. But when I was five, my eyes started to go inward,” Emard shared through a sign language interpreter. “My mom asked me if I wanted surgery. I said, ‘no, no’.”

And he never did have the corrective surgery, until last year.

Kyle Emard before surgery. Photo Kaiser Permanente

“I never had any bullying,” Emard said. “I was playing football, wrestling and traveling all over the country. My grandfather had a travel agency. It didn’t bother me. People would ask me what was wrong with my eye. They thought I was blind in one eye. During conversations people would look past me, not sure which eye to look at. I’d think, ‘they’re not looking at me’. I’d say, ‘I’m looking at you’.”

“I graduated from high school. I got ready for college. Then I bought a house,” Emard continued. “My mom asked me, again if I wanted surgery, and I told her ‘no’.”

“Strabismus describes eye misalignment problems,” Greninger explained. “In Kyle’s case this is most likely attributed to accommodative esotropia. That’s a condition where a person’s eyes turn in excessively due to them trying to focus. Kyle is far sighted.”

“This is very common for eye misalignment problems,” the doctor added. “People have a hard time looking at those with strabismus.”

“Sometimes it would be a serious discussion and people would say, ‘look at me’, And I was,” Emard shared. “It was annoying.”

“For some people it’s more than annoying,” Greninger interjected. “For people with strabismus it’s a quality-of-life impact issue.”

“What is particularly unique for me from the doctor’s side of it is Kyle also has hearing impairment. He has to communicate visually,” he continued. “Sometimes people with strabismus and hearing impairment have double vision. Sometimes depth perception is affected.”

Kyle Emard wearing his first set of glasses at age 5. Photo courtesy of Kyle Emard.

Emard began wearing his first pair of glasses when he was five years old. But his vision progressively worsened, through the years.

“Kyle mainly looked out of one eye,” the doctor shared. “But surgery was done on both eyes. More on the right eye than the left.”

“For people with hearing impairment it’s called Usher Syndrome in which people have both hearing and vision impairment,” Greninger continued. “People assumed Kyle had that. Usher syndrome is a completely different genetic condition in which patients often have very significant hearing and vision deficits and are often functionally blind.  In Kyle’s case, I think people knew he was deaf, and then saw his eye drifting and assumed that he also couldn’t see due to Usher syndrome, which would be incorrect.”

“People assumed I was blind in one eye,” Emard shared.

Asked if it was difficult to read a book, watch TV or go to the movies, he said, “No.”

“His sight was fine. He could see 20/20 but he was only looking out of one eye,” the doctor replied. “If you have strabismus as a child, often the brain learns to ignore one eye to avoid seeing double.  In adults, acquired strabismus can often result in double vision. Kyle’s problem, accommodative esotropia, typically develops between 2-6 years of age, and is related to hyperopia, or far-sightedness.”

Emard said he continued to wear glasses, then mainly contacts in high school. He went snow skiing, snowboarding and dirt biking.

“I wouldn’t go up high places, just small hills,” he shared. “I played roller blade hockey, defensive end in football. That was all before.”

A graduate of Leigh High School in San Jose, Emard attended Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.

“It’s one of the best known colleges for the deaf. All the instruction is in ASL (American Sign Language),” Greninger added.

“It’s a muscle issue. There are six muscles that are attached to the eye that move it in different directions. Up and down, left and right, and torsion that twists the eye,” he explained. “In strabismus, sometimes it’s a disease of the eye muscles. More commonly it’s the brain not telling the eye to do something. Our brains are usually hardwired to know how much to turn to focus.”

Kyle Emard post-surgery. Photo Kaiser Permanente

The Surgery

Asked when he decided to have the surgery Emard responded, “After my mom passed away three years ago. My family had money. Everything I was doing was done for the deaf organization. I felt it was the right time.”

The surgery took place last September.

“I met Kyle in 2022 after I had received a referral from one of my colleagues, a consult request. We set up a video chat with an interpreter,” Greninger shared. “We do video consults, first. For this condition it’s important for me to know the history of the condition.”

“We had that first video visit. We used some remote tools which allowed Kyle to take photos and videos at home,” the doctor continued. “We were able to use the components of technology that we didn’t have five years ago. I then had him come in for a complete eye exam to make sure his eyes were healthy.”

Asked if the technology is better, Grenginer said, “It’s safer, now. It’s about an hour-and-a-half surgery.”

“I can’t go into the brain and turn a screw a quarter inch to change how the brain controls the eye,” he explained. “In the surgery, we put in an eyelid speculum, make a small incision over the white part of the eye and find where the eye muscle is located. We put in a small suture where the muscle connects to the white of the eye. Then I detach the muscle with surgical scissors and move it to a new position.  If we move it back, this creates some slack and decreases the force on the eye for turning.”

“I wear special surgical loops to help me see. But it’s all done with hands no lasers,” the doctor stated. “The amount we move the muscles is determined by the measurements we take in the office. Deciding which muscles to move and in which pattern based on the person’s problem are the intellectual work of my specialty.”

“I don’t want to over-compensate or under do it,” he continued. “It’s done in millimeter precision. We’re measuring the half-millimeter. Each millimeter moves the eye three degrees.”

“I knew I was nervous out of fear of losing my eye,” Emard shared.

“Each time I saw you I was more comfortable,” he said to the doctor.

“I don’t remember the surgery. When I woke up, I thought, ‘I’m ready’. But I looked and was shocked,” Emard exclaimed.

“It’s general anesthesia surgery so you’re asleep the whole time,” Greninger said. “We were able to get a sign language interpreter to be there in Walnut Creek the whole day, which I think is very important to give people the same level of care. I was really happy the leadership and nursing staff were able to provide that.”

“We had to move three muscles on Kyle’s eyes. One muscle on his left eye and two muscles on his right eye,” the doctor explained. “First, we relaxed the muscle on the left eye. Then on the right eye we tightened the outside muscle and relaxed the inside muscle.”

“I remember the right eye was much more red than the left,” Emard explained. “After surgery I did have double vision for a little while but then it went away. I had full vision. I could see all the way around. It was strange.”

“After the surgery I felt the same,” he added.

He used eye drops for a few a days, “but the redness lasted a few weeks,” Emard shared.

Asked how long the recovery time is Greninger said, “About six to eight weeks. I usually tell patients in two months’ time people won’t be able to tell they had the surgery. Kyle came back to see me about six months later to see if everything was fine, about March of this year.”

“Sometimes I forgot. ‘Did I have surgery?” Emard stated. “I posted and let everyone know on Facebook and showed the before and after photos and got almost a thousand likes. After my surgery I cried a lot because my mom wasn’t around to see it. But she’s happy, now.”

Emard lives in Livermore, works in Fremont as a middle school counselor and has one child, a 15-year-old son.

Asked what his son thought Emard said, “He said ‘wow!’ He was shocked. He just kept looking around my eye, opening my eye. He was used to looking at me inward.”

Kyle Emard today. Photo by Allen D. Payton

“On the day of my surgery my son was at school, and he was all worried. He said my dad’s fine and the teacher said, ‘good’. The week after he had a football game and my friend drove me. I sat alone by the goal post. I told people I didn’t want to talk yet I’m still healing. But I had to be there.”

Asked if it has impacted his job Emard said, “It’s about the same” then spoke of the difference between the school pictures from last year compared to this year.

Asked if he feels different about himself, he said, “Oh, yes. I look at the picture and go ‘wow’! I just feel good.”

“After surgery my friends were gathering and said they missed my lazy eye,” Emard said with a laugh. “I’m happy every day.”

Asked if people who have the surgery get counseling after, Dr. Greninger said, “The psycho-social impact of strabismus has been well studied.  Characters in movies with strabismus often are portrayed with other disabilities, and people may wrongly assume that all people with eye misalignment have other intellectual handicaps.  Studies have shown that childhood strabismus can negatively impact a teacher’s perception of a student’s motivation or focus.  In addition, strabismus in adulthood can sometimes be a barrier to success in the workplace or finding a romantic partner.”

“Even the term lazy eye – we don’t use that term,” he continued. “Some people despite having strabismus they use the term lazy eye. It has a certain connotation to it. We think if it as a negative There’s a misunderstanding of people with strabismus.”

30,000 County Residents Have Correctable Vision Impairment

With offices at Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center on Deer Valley Road, Dr. Greninger grew up in San Ramon, graduated from Cal High and earned his undergrad at Dartmouth College. He did his residency at UCSF Medical Center in Ophthalmology followed by a Fellowship in Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus at Oregon Health Science University in Portland.

“I started at the Antioch Medical Center in 2013. It’s been about 10 years of offering the surgery in Contra Costa County,” the doctor shared. “About half of my practice is adult strabismus and about half are children. We do about 100 to 150 surgeries like this each year.”

“We estimate we have about 15,000 with eye misalignment problems in our service area,” Greninger stated. “Sometimes people can have a medical problem like a stroke, thyroid eye disease, a neurological condition or facial trauma from an accident or assault. They can cause eye alignment problems. Probably half my adult patients had it as children and it either came back or it was never dealt with.”

He also estimates there are as many as 30,000 people in Contra Costa County suffering from strabismus which is correctable.

“Many people have this and don’t know something can be done or has been on the back burner for a long time,” Greninger stated. “Sharing stories like Kyle’s is good to let people know something can be done. I have patients come to me and say, ‘I wish I had come to you earlier’.”

“I try to put myself in the patient’s shoes to see how they’re thinking. It’s a leap of faith for a patient. It takes a lot of bravery to trust a doctor with your eyesight,” he said.

“It’s an out-patient surgery. You go home the same day. Most of the eye surgeries are done in Walnut Creek,” Greninger added.

 

Lab results show Legionnaires’ Disease bacteria detected in samples linked to Richmond Spa

By Leave a Comment

Zen Day Spa front and hot tub. Source: Yelp

Two connected deaths; business remains closed

By Contra Costa Health

Laboratory testing results show that water and swab samples collected from a Richmond spa contained high levels of legionella bacteria, making it the likely source of Legionnaires’ disease among multiple customers.

Contra Costa Health (CCH) began investigating Zen Day Spa at 12230 San Pablo Avenue on Aug. 4, after area hospitals reported two deaths from Legionnaires’ disease. Both people visited the business before becoming ill.

The business voluntarily closed Aug. 5, and remains closed under a health order issued by CCH. CCH collected water and swab samples and, while still awaiting final reports from the lab, initial results show high concentrations of legionella bacteria.

CCH has contacted more than 30 recent customers of Zen Day Spa as part of its investigation, as well as recent cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported through community healthcare providers.

Beyond the two people who died with lab-confirmed Legionnaires’ disease, CCH has as of Aug. 21 identified two other people who visited the business and had lab-confirmed Legionnaires’ disease, and two people who reported becoming ill after visiting the business, whom investigators suspect had Legionnaires’ disease.

CCH will not release personal information about these people, in accordance with medical privacy laws.

Legionnaires’ disease can cause serious pneumonia. While legionella bacteria naturally live in fresh water, health concerns can arise in hot tubs and pools where the bacteria can grow if the water is not maintained properly. People can become infected after breathing mist containing the bacteria. The disease does not spread from person to person.

Hot tubs in commercial day spas or massage parlors generally require health permits and are regularly inspected by CCH. The tub at Zen Day Spa did not have a permit and was never inspected by CCH.

Given the preliminary laboratory results, CCH today issued an abatement order declaring the business a public nuisance and ordering it to contract for professional cleaning of the affected space and removal and disposal of the hot tub within 30 days to ensure the elimination of legionella. The business may not reopen until re-inspected by CCH.

CCH will be in communication with civic partners, such as municipal code enforcement programs, about investigating other spas and massage parlors across the county to ensure that those with hot tubs also have proper health permits to operate.

“Proper maintenance of hot tubs and pools is becoming increasingly important, both for businesses and private citizens who own tubs, as we continue to experience climate change,” said Dr. Ori Tzvieli, Contra Costa County health officer. “Higher temperatures make growth of legionella and bacteria more likely, and more prolific, in water that is not properly treated.”

Anyone can use CCH’s swimming pool and spa inspection database to see recent inspection results of permitted public pools and hot tubs in Contra Costa County.

People who suspect an establishment is operating a public spa without a health permit can file a complaint online or by phoning 925-608-5500. Links to both the database and complaint form are available at cchealth.org/eh.

Information about which pools and spas need permits, as well as advice and instructions about proper maintenance, are available at ccheath.org/eh/recreational-health.

Applicants sought for Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Commission

By Leave a Comment

WHAT: The Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Commission seeks applicants for two open alternate seats.

The commission is a voluntary body appointed by the county Board of Supervisors that makes policy recommendations to the board and county staff regarding hazardous materials and hazardous waste.

WHO: The commission’s 14 members and alternates serve 4-year terms and include representatives from industry, labor, civic groups, environmental organizations, environmental engineers, the public and elected officials.

Open seats include the General Public Alternate and Environmental Organization Alternate seats. Alternates must be prepared to fill in as needed when commission members are not available to attend or vote.

Applicants must live or work in Contra Costa, have a demonstrated interest in hazardous materials issues, an understanding and commitment to the principles of environmental justice as defined in county policy, and be able to attend monthly meetings as needed. Candidates for the Environmental Organization Alternate seat should represent an environmental organization to which they belong.

HOW: Applications are available from Michael Kent, the executive assistant to the commission, at 925-250-3227 or mkent@cchealth.org, or from the Clerk of the Board at 1025 Escobar St., First Floor, in Martinez.

Applications may be submitted by email or by mailing them to the clerk of the board. An online application form is also available at contracosta.ca.gov/3418/Appointed-Bodies-Committees-Commissions.

WHEN: The deadline to apply is August 31. Interviews for qualified applicants will take place between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on September 8.

 

Groundbreaking maps dispel former misconception about gun homicides in California

By Leave a Comment

Source: California Gun Homicides 2014-2022 dashboard

The maps show that while urban centers are often characterized as the leading settings of gun violence, this data shows two-thirds of gun homicides occurred outside urban settings and California’s most populated cities.

By Antonia Ehlers, PR & Media Relations, Kaiser Permanente Northern California

Hope and Heal Fund in partnership with RomoGIS Enterprise today launched a groundbreaking statewide Geographical Information System (GIS) maps of gun homicides from 2014-2022. The California Gun Homicides 2014 – 2022 dashboard was collaboratively built to visualize available data of reported gun homicides and raise awareness about where gun-related homicides have occurred in California communities.

For the first time, Californians can view where gun violence happens in communities, filtered by county and showing street-level incidents. The maps reveal a compelling insight into the patterns of gun homicides in California. The maps show that approximately two-thirds of gun homicides over the past nine years occurred outside urban settings and California’s most populated cities. This finding underscores the urgent need to extend support beyond urban centers and address the rising rates of gun violence in rural, semi-rural, and suburban areas.

This research was made possible by grant funding from long-time gun violence prevention supporter Kaiser Permanente. With this support Hope and Heal Fund has also built a Northern California network of community leaders focused on gun violence data collection and mapping and to better understand when and where California gun-related deaths occur.

Cuco Rodriguez, Hope and Heal Fund’s Chief Strategist and Equity Officer led this initiative, sharing, “One important finding from the data is the need to separate and examine different types of gun homicides, particularly those related to intimate partner violence. Currently, general homicide data from law enforcement agencies often overlook the impact and frequency of intimate partner homicides, leading to misconceptions about the primary drivers of gun violence.”

Gun Homicides in Contra Costa County 2014-22.

Through further mapping and by analyzing disaggregated homicide data, we can better understand the unique challenges posed by intimate partner homicides and allocate appropriate resources to address this specific issue.

This effort initially set out to counter inaccurate assumptions regarding urban centers being drivers of gun homicides in California. With access to timely data, stakeholders should consider the implications of this information and data and how it can best be leveraged to develop opportunities that are strategic, focused, and surgical in reducing all forms of gun violence across the state.

“As a health care organization that is committed to improving health in our communities and addressing health equity, we are proud to support the work of the Hope and Heal fund to raise awareness and reduce gun-related homicides in California,” said Yvette Radford, Kaiser Permanente Northern California vice president for External and Community Affairs. “Far too often our clinical teams see the devastating effects of gun violence on individuals and families. Together with all health care organizations, we must do more to support evidence-based community interventions that prevent gun violence.”

To explore the GIS maps and gain insights into gun violence data, please visit our CA Gun Homicides GIS Mapping Report.

Hope and Heal Fund is the only state-based donor collaborative fund investing in a public health, racial equity, and community-based approach to decreasing firearm suicides and gun homicides, injuries, and trauma. Hope and Heal Fund partners with impacted communities on strategies to prevent and interrupt gun violence and heal from the trauma, harm, and generational iniquities exacerbated by the lethality and coercive effects of guns in homes and communities.

About RomoGIS Enterprises

RomoGIS Enterprises specializes in geospatial solutions, specifically GIS mapping and analysis. With its expertise in data visualization and interactive tools, RomoGIS empowers organizations to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions.