Team-Tested Practices

• Participating in team building activities to build trust and engagement
• Rewarding and recognizing employees for ideas and actions that contribute to the team’s work
• Implementing quick, visible suggestions to improve the work environment

What can your team do to help employees feel safe speaking up?

• Reviewing the Emergency Department’s patient intake procedure and documenting the number of forms used
• Brainstorming ways to reduce multiple forms and frequency of contact between clerks and patients
• Educating clerks and staff on the new technology, including the use of electronic signature pads

What can your team do to leverage technology to save money and improve the patient experience? What else could you do to help keep KP affordable for our member and patients?

• Providing more information on the dialysis process
• Scheduling surgery for fistulas sooner
• Minimizing the time patients use catheters for dialysis

What can your team do to reduce infections? And are there ways educating patients can improve the care experience? 

• Reviewing the department budget and using performance improvement tools to determine the causes of overtime
• Revamping the department workflow and coordinating with each other to schedule a relief RN to cover those on break
• Educating and reminding staff about the importance of clocking in and out on time
• Encouraging nurses to notify their managers two hours before the end of shift if they expect to work overtime.

• Team members learning about their own benefits and researching which Emergency Departments Kaiser Permanente prefers to have members use
• Analyzing claims data for patients with the highest number of Emergency Department visits
• Educating patients about Emergency Department use

What can your team do to improve its own business literacy? And help patients make better decisions about their care? 

• Reviewing ordering and inventory practices
• Working with pharmacists to better manage the ordering of specialty drugs
• Increasing bulk purchasing

What can your team do to manage your inventory better? What else could your team do to save money? 

• Involving all team members in the UBT, not just a representative group
• Asking for (and getting!) feedback from all team members 
• Communicating more

What can your team do to mobilize everyone? What else could your team do to listen to all members? 

• Hosting in-service to discuss how to properly set up a scanning procedure
• Monitoring the process to ensure the scanning was done properly
• Sharing feedback about the process so every team member can learn from any mistake

What can your team do to work with other UBTs so you can both improve? What additional training could your team benefit from?