Team-Tested Practices

• Giving injections in the exam room, rather than the injection clinic
• Limiting the choice for physicians to two versions of the same vaccine to choose from—instead of several
• Huddling among medical assistants and physicians once or twice a day to determine which of their incoming patients need vaccines. Medical assistants then have the shots ready for those patients

• Starting with a truly small test of change: one shift on one day
• Creating a flow sheet to see how long it took for doctors’ orders on walking with patients to be met
• Standardizing a mobility protocol for all patients

What can your team do with a small test of change? What else could your team do to make Kaiser Permanente the best place to work and receive care?

• Designating and training a HealthConnect super-user on the team
• Coaching and mentoring all team members on using the prompts in HealthConnect to urge patients to agree to sceenings and book appointments
• Tracking how often staff members remind patients to get screenings

What can your team do to ensure that members and patients get their necessary screenings? What else could your team do to coach and mentor HeatlthConnect super-users?

• Providing loaner blood pressure kits to hypertensive patients who had trouble traveling to the clinic.
• Mobilizing patients to phone their providers every day with their blood pressure readings, furnishing the information needed in just a couple of minutes, without filling up an entire appointment slot.
• Increasing the number of free appointments available for blood pressure checks.

• Involving nurses, physicians and materials management in the project from the beginning
• Mobilizing all UBT members to use stickers to indicate which supplies they use—and which they could live without
• Managing resistance to change

What can your team do to engage everyone in performance improvement efforts? What else could your team do to encourage feedback and help individuals manage change?

• Standardizing the workflow for collecting specimens and ordering lab tests
• Educating physicians about the medical assistants’ workflow and the couriers’ pick-up schedules
• Treating errors as an opportunity for coaching rather than discipline

What can your team do to collect and analyze data to make workflow improvements? What else could your team do to encourage everyone to speak up and share concerns, ideas and suggestions?

• Negotiating education funding as part of the national agreements between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions
• Carving out time for workers to attend classes in how to reduce waste and use non-toxic cleaning products
• Mobilizing environmental services workers to educate other KP employees and managers about green practices in a variety of departments

What can your team do to build career resiliency and adapt to change in the workplace? What else could your team do engage everyone in lifelong learning?

• Partnering with Thriving Schools, one of KP’s Community Benefit programs
• Adapting a successful program in a new and innovative context
• Mobilizing KP care givers to volunteer in their own community, leveraging their specific expertise

What can your team do to participate in KP's Community Benefit programs?  What else could your team do to build a culture of health and safety in the workplace?

• Gathering caregivers from a range of disciplines to meet and round on patients together
• Listening with respect
• Encouraging nurses and other care givers to speak up, ask questions and offer suggestions

What can your team do to build an environment where workers feel safe sharing ideas and concerns? What else could your team do to engage everyone in performance improvement efforts?