Kaiser News

The seventh season of Kaiser Permanente's 'Thrive' advertising campaign debuts today. This year, the ads focus on the importance of integrated health care and Kaiser Permanente's commitment to healthy families.

Kaiser Permanente's 10-year, $4 billion investment to plan, implement and optimize an electronic health record system - the largest and one of the earliest comprehensive non-governmental systems of its kind - is the subject of the new book 'Connected for Health: Using Electronic Health Records to Transform Care Delivery.'

Sarah Beekley, MD, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center, recently headed to western Kenya with three of her five daughters. While the young women, all in their early 20s, work on a community education project, Dr. Beekley is volunteering in a clinic founded by a Kaiser Permanente physician several years ago in this desperately poor and disease-filled part of Africa. Read her compelling firsthand account of volunteering at the Matibabu clinic in the town of Ugenya.

Kaiser Permanente has successfully used human-centered design thinking to improve quality and care. The 'Harvard Business Review' piece talks about how Kaiser Permanente's Innovation Consultancy has 'pursued an expansive, service-focused version of innovation.'

To improve the quality of HIV care and treatment nationwide, 17 measures such as screening and prevention for infections and monitoring of antiretroviral therapy should be adopted uniformly, according to a work group led by a Kaiser Permanente researcher. The work group's study results appear in the current issue of 'Clinical Infectious Diseases.'

Kaiser Permanente's 2009 annual report - 'Health Moves Us' - now is available for online viewing or download. Throughout, the report tells how health moves us in every sense of the word - physically, mentally and spiritually. It offers a fresh look at what has been the essential story of Kaiser Permanente since it was founded in 1946: The story of talented, caring people who take a holistic view of health care.

August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and Kaiser Permanente believes that one of the most important choices a mother can make to promote the health of her family is to choose to breastfeed exclusively. Kaiser Permanente, with more than 90,000 births in 2009, uses its integrated care delivery model to help mothers understand the benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and child, and to support the decision to breastfeed.

Colorful, at times poignant, the artwork was created by youngsters in child care centers launched during World War II to support women working in the Richmond Kaiser Shipyards. The collection at the Richmond Museum of History was brought to light when discovered by former UC Berkeley professor and war veteran Joe Fischer. He will sign copies of his book, 'Children's Art & Children's Words' Aug. 28 at the museum.

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and their respective subsidiaries (KFH/HP) reported today a combined total operating revenue of $11.0 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, compared to $10.5 billion in the same period in 2009. Operating income was $313 million in the second quarter of 2010, compared to $411 million in the same quarter last year. Net non-operating income was $91 million in the second quarter of 2010, compared to $209 million in the same quarter last year. As a result, net income for the second quarter was $404 million versus net income of $620 million in the same period last year. These represent the combined operating results for Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and their respective subsidiaries.