A former Kaiser Permanente anesthesiologist has filed a $9 million
lawsuit against the health organization, claiming he was fired after he
repeatedly complained that cost-cutting measures were jeopardizing the
safety of patients in the Portland area.Among those measures was an August 2014 mandate from higher-ups that anesthesiologists reduce the amount of knock-out or anti-anxiety meds they give surgery patients so the patients would wake up sooner and be discharged as soon as possible, according to a lawsuit filed by Dr. Erik Franck last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court.