LMP Processes

After government stay-at-home orders derailed their plans for a patient support group, members of Kaiser Permanente’s Marlow Heights Behavioral Health team in Maryland set up a video chat for vulnerable individuals sheltering in place.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to be open and receptive to connecting with our members in a different way,” says Dawn Anderson, a psychotherapist with UFCW Local 400 and union co-lead for the Level 4 unit-based team. “This way we’re still supporting patients with serious health issues.”

Propelled by the global pandemic, Behavioral Health teams across the Mid-Atlantic States are using partnership principles and tools to transform how and where patients seek care — resulting in changes likely to outlast the crisis.

Connecting with patients

Therapists are working from home and counseling patients via telephone and video. Unit-based team members are meeting virtually, too, using collaborative digital tools to identify challenges and solutions.

They’re also using such tried-and-true performance improvement tools as the Rapid Improvement Model to reveal the best ways to connect with patients by telephone and video.

“Sometimes I will connect with patients on video, then after 5 minutes something will cause a disruption and I’ll have to ask if we can connect via telephone,” says Anderson. “We are still adapting to telehealth technology.”

Adapting quickly

The rapid-fire changes haven’t been easy for team members, who are conducting assessments with patients by phone instead of in person because of social distancing requirements.

“We’ve done things in this pandemic season that we normally would not have done,” says Reuben Steele, Behavioral Health operations manager and management co-lead. “That has caused some initial anxiety but, ultimately, the team has been able to adapt and adjust quickly.”

Being heard

Team members agree having a voice in decisions about ways to deliver care is helping them cope with change. A key feature of the Labor Management Partnership is involving frontline workers and union leaders in decision making.

“The LMP is a great way to think outside of the box and figure out what we can do to meet people’s needs,” says Lindsey McDaniel, a psychotherapist, UFCW Local 400 member and labor co-lead for the Silver Spring Behavioral Health team, a Level 4 UBT in Maryland.

Anderson agrees.

“We’re able to ‘check egos at the door’ and come forth with ideas and suggestions. That’s what I love about the UBT setting,” she says. “Our UBT consultant and manager support us and are open to feedback on team projects and goals. This is the forum where I feel my colleagues and I are being heard.”

Do you or your teammates want to shrink wait times? Save money on supplies? Reduce time wasters or roadblocks? Once you’ve identified a problem to solve, you may wonder where to start. No need to invent an improvement project from scratch. Visit the Team-Tested Practices section and see what’s worked for others. We’ve got short summaries of successes from every region and every type of work environment to give your team a kickstart.

1. What’s here? 

When you visit LMPartnership.org/team-tested-practices, you’ll find the first several “tiles” of the dozens you can choose from as you scroll through this section. Each tile will have a photo and short preview about a specific, measurable improvement a team has made.

2. Sharpen your search 

Want to narrow down what you see? Use the filters on the left side of the page. There are several to try, including:

• Topic. Choices include affordability, patient safety, service and more.
• Department. See what departments like yours have done.
• Region. Check out the projects done in your region.

Selecting more than one filter at a time works, too. And remember that you can get great ideas from departments very different from yours and regions other than your own. You’ll notice these filters throughout the website to help you focus your searches. 

3. Intrigued? 

See something your team might want to try? Click on the tile to get a more complete description of the challenge the team was facing — and the main tests of change that helped the team achieve its goal. And the measurable result: “Saved $40,000,” “decreased wait times by 11 minutes,” “69 percent drop in costs.”

4. No dead ends! 

So, maybe the practice you clicked on isn’t right for your team. Before you move on, check out the related tools and stories in the colorful columns farther down this page. Throughout the site, the color orange means, “Here are tools to get your team started on work like this.” Blue is, “Get inspired by stories and videos about teams working on similar efforts!” And, “Just for fun” — green will take you to puzzles, games and other light-hearted resources to kick off your improvement campaign on an upbeat note.

Sponsors are the go-to people for UBT co-leads, providing resources, guidance and oversight for teams — and effective sponsorship is one of the most important ingredients for a high-performing unit-based team. If you’re a sponsor, provide your teams with the support they need to create an environment where UBT members are always learning, always improving, always innovating.

1. Make it a priority to be involved. Provide feedback and hold teams accountable for action plans.
2. Coach and mentor co-leads; connect them with opportunities to develop needed skills or knowledge. Developing strong team members will ease your work in the long run.
3. Take time for face time. Walk the floor with team members and occasionally attend UBT meetings.
4. Share expectations up front with your co-sponsor and team co-leads. Define how you’ll make decisions and how you’ll communicate and how often.
5. Help team members build their problem-solving skills by having them develop solutions, but if there are barriers outside the co-leads’ or team’s scope, get busy breaking them down.
6. Educate your teams about local work plans and regional performance priorities so they can work on the right projects. Be sure, too, that things team members care most about get addressed.
7. Celebrate and highlight successes, both large and small, by rewarding individuals and teams in a way that is meaningful to them — whether it’s an email, party, lunch or a parking spot for a month.
8. Secure the resources your teams need to get work done, such as time for regular trainings or meetings and access to data that will help benchmark their performance.
9. Establish a baseline Path to Performance rating. Assist teams in understanding the rating and connect them with resources or successful practices that will help them become high performing.
10. Ensure teams are documenting their work regularly, accurately and concisely in UBT Tracker.