Yes, I had a better experience as a Kaiser patient at Palomar, than a Kaiser patient at Kaiser. The main difference is in the staffing levels, both for nurses and doctors. Thank goodness my sister is a surgeon, and intervened on my behalf or my Kaiser experience would have been even worse. I mean, who would expect 10 days in the hospital for an appendectomy. I really thought I was dying when that pathologist did that procedure without pain meds. They basically puncture through your abdomen and hope they don’t hit your intestines in the process, and the pathologist was wearing no goggles or gloves. It was a little messy, so he was an idiot for having no goggles. But after 2 days of writhing in pain in the hospital, I was glad they were at least doing something. I was grateful to be in the US, because I would have died if I’d been a poor person in a 3rd world country. I also felt true hunger pangs for the first time,because I couldn’t eat for over a week in the hospital, plus 5 days prior at home. The hunger pangs are extremely painful, worse than the appendix pain.
I had an elective procedure at Palomar, and my Kaiser doctor said he also prefers working at Palomar.
Kaiser has only 1 hospital for all San Diego County members. I think they have over 500,000 members. So if you need the ER, take a book.