First, the article is nothing new. It basically says the same thing as before, "some 22-year old got out of college and worked at Kaiser for 6 months only to find out that, hey, big IT is not perfect." I can't figure out why anyone cares what some dumbass kid is blabbering about. It would be completely different if it was the CIO saying this.

Second, it is true that the medical health system they're implementing is super-complicated but name one that isn't that does what everyone wants. The FBI spent $100m+ on a total failure of a virtual case file system which is far less complicated than an integrated medical health system. Kaiser themselves spent $1B trying to make their own system which was also a failure.

The current implementation is a big-ass system with 8.5 million patients and over 12,000 doctors and a hundred thousand other employees. Frankly, it's a miracle that any system works at all there let alone at 99.2% uptime. Think of all the moving parts! And, yes, I echo someone else's comment that I believe Citrix bears a portion of the blame for the uptime figure -- they kind of suck.

MrNovember

It is not always the job of the consumer. This notion that each citizen dictates the best course of action is absurd. Companies do not advertise their negative aspects. Exxon lobbied hard for drilling in Alaska, but you don't see signs at the pump like "Before you fill up, you should know that you are supporting a campaign to drill in National Parks for oil". The majority of citizens are passive, but if you ask, I'm sure they'd like more laws protecting privacy so they don't have to make a full-time job out of it.