By Ben Thrutchley
At Kaiser Permanente (KPMAS) we believe in strengthening communities across the nation. That’s why when the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care (UMASS Memorial) leaders and SHARE union representatives reached out to KPMAS to learn more about our unit based teams (UBT), we were excited to share our best practices.
On March 9 over a dozen leaders from UMASS Memorial and SHARE gathered with KPMAS employees at the Capitol Hill Medical Center for a tightly packed day of presentations, conversation and networking. The day was fully focused on helping UMASS Memorial and SHARE launch their own labor management partnership and UBT program. Kaiser Permanente is seen as an industry leader in these areas with well over a decade of experience launching, nurturing and supporting UBTs and a labor management partnership.
“Helping other organizations like UMASS Memorial and SHARE better serve their communities advances our goal of total health for all,” said Nadean Cacho, Kaiser Permanente Director Performance Improvement LMP Programs, who organized the meeting along with Lara Manzione, MAS Coordinator for the Coalition of KP Unions. “Sharing knowledge about our UBTs advances Kaiser Permanente’s leadership profile and helps us build connections with organizations across the country. It is a win-win for all involved.”
During the day participants heard presentations from UBT consultants about successes and challenges. Capitol Hill Pharmacy and Adult Medicine UBT co-leads from management and labor participated in engaging Q&A sessions. UMASS Memorial and SHARE members then had the option to tour clinical areas and see the performance improvements in action. The second part of the day included a discussion about the importance of UBT sponsorship, a Labor Management Partnership meeting and a KPMAS employee town hall.
The day’s success was evident from the numerous attendee positive comments including:
The opportunity to see formed UBT partnerships in action was extremely useful in envisioning how we will get the first several UBTs started in our own setting. I also am very grateful to have had time to speak to Dr. Tripuraneni [Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group Associate Medical Director] to understand where things sit in terms of physician engagement. I highly value the spirit of generosity that was evident throughout the day– the willingness to share openly all of their materials and lessons learned speaks volumes about the work culture and commitment to promoting a great partnership well beyond their own borders. — Dr. Sheri Keitz, MD, Chief, General Internal Medicine at UMASS Memorial
MAS KP staff were sincere, honest, kind and very generous in hosting our group and allowing us to watch as they went through their day-to-day activities and listen and ask questions as they taught us the true benefits of UBTs and Partnerships. — Bobbi-Jo Lewis, SHARE Organizer
Kaiser Permanente looks forward to continuing this important conversation with UMASS Memorial and SHARE over the coming months. Working together we can build stronger partnerships and communities.
