Kaiser CIO Cliff Dodd resigns

Computerworld - Cliff Dodd, the CIO for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan/Hospitals, resigned earlier this week after an employee sent a memo to every Kaiser worker warning of technological and financial repercussions related to the rollout of a $4 billion electronic health records management system from Epic Systems Corp.

Justen Deal, a project supervisor at Kaiser Permanente's Los Angeles facility, was placed on paid administrative leave after sending the memo.

"I've had access to internal projections that show that we could lose $7 billion over the next two years. Losses of even a fraction of that amount could be destabilizing to the organization," Deal said in a telephone interview. "On Friday I sent an e-mail to my colleagues pointing out the reliability and scalability issues we're facing with our HealthConnect system [Kaiser's name for the Epic system]. The big issue for me are the financial repercussions of trying to launch such an ineffective and inefficient and unreliable system across the organization."

Kaiser spokesman Matthew Schiffgens confirmed that Dodd had resigned and that Deal had been placed on leave.

Although he declined to comment further on the resignation, Schiffgens said Deal was placed on leave because Kaiser has a policy on the use of company assets. Dodd could not be reached for comment.

Bruce Turksta, vice president and program director of HealthConnect, has been named interim CIO.

On Tuesday, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. reported net income of $417 million, up from $305 million in the same period last year, on $8.7 billion in operating revenue for the third quarter of 2006. That's up from $7.8 billion in operating revenue last year.

Deal said he sent letters to Kaiser management expressing his concerns, but in internal memos, management said it had investigated Deal's concerns and found them baseless.

Deal, however, is not backing off his claims. "It's chilling for anyone in the organization to see how far off-track this project has gone," he said.

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