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Patients trust their doctors – or at least they want to. It seems as though medical malpractice cases always happen to the ‘other guy’, but the likelihood of it happening to us is slim to none. At least when doctors do the wrong thing, they are penalized, right? Well, that’s not always the case – especially at Kaiser Permanente.

We asked Jeff Milman, a member of the Advocate Law Group Network who has been practicing law for over 25 years and specializes in medical negligence, about Kaiser’s doctors. “There are still some very bad doctors; make no mistake. If you are a partner at Kaiser where you’ve put in your time, you can leave a trail of bodies and you continue to remain at Kaiser. However, Kaiser has made a dedicated effort over the past ten years or so of hiring some excellent doctors. So it’s the old adage, ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ and if you’re proactive, you may get the really good doctor.”

What happens when a doctor is found liable for medical malpractice at Kaiser?

Although Milman says that Kaiser’s doctors have gotten better over the past ten years, he’s not so sure the Kaiser system has followed suit. We asked him what happens when a doctor at Kaiser is found liable for medical negligence. “Well, it’s no different than any doctor in California, with the exception that if you’re part of a small medical group, your partners may say, ‘What the heck is going on? Our partner’s been guilty of malpractice?’ Or you may not be able to get staff privileges at a local hospital if you are a doctor who has repeated malpractice verdicts. With Kaiser, you will have a job. You will continue to practice medicine. They do have their own internal review board, which in my humble opinion, is not very effective.”

Reporting requirements protect consumers

Even if Kaiser’s system leaves something to be desired, California’s reporting requirements may protect consumers against future malpractice. Milman explains, “In California, whenever a doctor settles a case or there is a verdict against them, their name goes to two places: one is to a national databank. Secondly, there is an automatic requirement that the person be reported to the California Medical Board and it will not be unheard of for me to receive a phone call a couple years after I’ve gotten a verdict against somebody or a settlement, where the Attorney General will be investigating that doctor or nurse or practitioner and that investigation can result in anything from zero all the way up to loss of license and anything in between, such as continuing education or what have you.”