Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions Concepts

• Researching and trying different breathing equipment
• Improving communication among team members and other health care workers, such as wound nurses
• Focusing on fixing problems, not blaming each other

What can your team do to increase awareness of how equipment can impact patient care? 

• 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?

• 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?

• 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?

• Cultivating a culture of partnership and freedom to speak up with new ideas
• Enlisting a physician champion to approach the regional medical director
• Researching the new technology, including its money-saving potential 

What can your team do to identify the barriers that stop employees from speaking up? What else could your team do to encourage everyone to share ideas, suggestions and concerns?