Kaiser Permanente plans to eliminate about 1,200 Northern California jobs due to the tanking economy. The primary areas affected by this most recent slash include "housekeeping, pharmacy techs/clerks, unit assistants, transcription/medical secretaries, health information management clerks and local business offices." The job cuts will effectively remove about 2% of its workforce. The company says it will try to shift cut employees into other positions at Kaiser, but, really, that doesn't seem likely. Kaiser also said "the cuts will not impact the level of service for their patients," or what little left of it there is. Sigh.