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Kaiser isn't all bad. They did a good job of handling my cancer in 1985. They performed 4 open heart surgeries on my oldest son at ages 5, 10, 15 and 17. He lived to age 32 before a poor decision to give him Z-Pak for pneumonia killed him with sudden cardiac death in May 2012. That was an error made by a PA who failed to read his chart before choosing Z-Pak for pneumonia. He had artificial valves and took Coumadin to keep to PT in range. The day before the Z-Pak prescription his PT was 2.5....perfect. After a 5 day series of Z-Pak, his PT was over 8.5...life threatening. He died about 13 hours after that PT measurement.

Myrddin said: "Kaiser isn't all bad."

Perhaps.

Many years ago they misdiagnosed my brothers appendicitis and prescribed a laxative. That advice is counter to what I, as a Boy Scout, knew of first aid. We didn't administer a laxative.

Twelve hours later my brother was operated on and had his ready-to-burst appendix removed.

Years later an ambulance was rear-ended in a nearby town. The driver of the ambulance was transported by the second ambulance to a Kaiser hospital despite the driver's vehement protestations.

X-rays at the hospital showed no injuries, so the driver was released to go home. Several days later the ailing driver was diagnosed with a fractured spine using the x-ray taken by Kaiser.

I know of another Kaiser patient who was recovering from Guy-Barre syndrome, which can cause total paralysis. Although he almost died one time when the nurse failed to notice that his trach tube had become detached, he was still appreciative of the otherwise excellent care provided by Kaiser during his treatment and rehabilitation.

The lesson I learned from this is that one must be thoroughly convinced of the diagnosis independent of Kaiser before one should submit to their procedures.

I have selected alternatives to Kaiser my entire adult life and will continue to do so.