[pdeuchler]

"BD had released its own safety syringes some years earlier. But the ECRI Institute, the Consumer Reports of the health care industry, had rated its best-selling model 'unacceptable' (it was later upgraded to 'not recommended'), whereas Shaw’s product received the top rating."

<anecdotal evidence> I have a doctor and a nurse in my extended family that deal with Kaiser on a daily basis and I've heard horror stories that would make a battle hardened marine cringe. One that immediately comes to mind was a patient that literally died while waiting for some kind of approval (it's been a while since I've visited) from Kaiser for a kidney transplant. </anecdotal evidence>

[d503]

Kaiser actually shut down their kidney transplant program in 2006 [1] after a number of problems came to light. The state regulator prepared a 50 page report on the matter [2]. Incidentally--and I have no personal experience with Kaiser or any other HMO and can't tell how close to reality this is--Kaiser (in California at least) does pretty well in government quality of care performance measurements and overall member ratings [3], and they are also Consumer Reports's top ranked California HMO.

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/13/... [2] http://www.dmhc.ca.gov/library/reports/med_survey/surveys/05... [3] http://www.opa.ca.gov/report_card/hmorating.aspx