Unit-based team concepts

Communication Drives Success

Submitted by Jennifer Gladwell on Tue, 08/19/2014 - 16:23
Region
Request Number
nw_process center_transportation_ir_jg_tf
Long Teaser

Courier drivers in the Northwest improve communication and morale after going through an Issue Resolution--and move forward on revamping routes for greater efficiency.

Communicator (reporters)
Jennifer Gladwell
Editor (if known, reporters)
Tyra Ferlatte
Notes (as needed)
No photos in assets, will need to get something. jg 7/15
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A driver helps get vans loaded for the daily runs.
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By the Numbers

These figures provide quick insight into some of the challenges the Transportation department faces.

  • 50 employees
  • Serves 32 medical offices, 28 dental offices, 14 administrative offices, 10 hospitals
  • 75 percent of employees start at different locations
  • 24-hour operation
  • 29 courier schedules; seven large van freight schedules Monday through Friday; four weekend routes
  • Drive 1.5 million miles a year
  • More than 380,000 time-sensitive stops
  • Save approximately $1,500 per month on shipping expenses by preventing the need for outside shipping services
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Courier drivers in the Northwest improve routes after fixing communication and morale issues
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The Transportation department in the Northwest is coming out of a tumultuous time. A lack of trust between managers and employees created a barrier that affected morale—and made it difficult to focus on improving routes and processes.

The department uses a robust but complex process for optimizing its routes. For maximum efficiency, it has to integrate a variety of work streams and figure out where there are redundancies that can be eliminated. Because of the complexity of the process, however, it had been more than 15 years since the criteria and requirements for the transportation system from the customer’s point of view had been reviewed.

Eventually, the UBT worked out a thorough route-modernization plan based on data-driven service requirements and metrics that established parameters on how to revise and design its routes.

But before it got there, it had to fix its communication, which broke down so badly the team entered into an issue resolution. In the Northwest, the LMP Education and Training department is responsible for facilitating issue resolutions.

Blame-free solutions

“There was a lot of tension in the department, and people were nervous about losing their jobs as a result of our work around revamping routes. Poor communication was a problem,” says Greg Hardy, sponsor and manager of the department.

The issue resolution process uses interest-based problem solving, and that helped the team focus on a common goal: Serving its customers was the top priority and improving communication was a necessity. From there, other agreements came more easily, and the department was able to maintain staffing levels and improve processes as a result of its efforts.

Improved communication improves service

As a result of the improved communication, the team was able to improve service levels and achieve the efficiency and cost savings it had strived for.

“We have a group of dedicated workers who want things done the right way,” says logistics supervisor Chris Dirksen, the team’s management co-lead.

When it came to improving communication, the team members’ first step was to get a baseline measurement of what they were trying to improve. They created a survey that would measure not only communication but also morale and UBT effectiveness. Once they had that information, they created a SMART goal: to improve employee perception of communication, morale and UBT effectiveness by 15 percent within three months, raising the overall survey score from 2.55 to 2.93 by February 2014.

As the team began to investigate the issues, it discovered email was not a good form of communication. Fewer than 20 percent of the team members knew how to log on and use Lotus Notes. The team brainstormed ways get employees to use Lotus Notes email and frontline staffers began to instruct and coach one another.

Three months later, the team sent the survey out again and found it had met its goal. Perception of communication improved 48 percent, morale improved by 56 percent and UBT effectiveness improved by 21 percent. The team scored 3.4 on its survey, exceeding its stretch goal of 2.93, and anecdotal reports are that the communication success is continuing now that the team has successfully completely the issue resolution.

New ways to communicate

Team members use several means now for communicating with one another, including email. A communication board has been set up in the department’s headquarters, near dispatch, that includes information about the projects the team is working on, notes from UBT meetings and a copy of the department’s weekly e-newsletter, “Heads Up.”

In addition, the team has gone from a representative UBT to a general membership UBT and now has regularly scheduled meetings throughout the region, so that all employees are able to participate. “This has been our biggest success to share information,” says UBT union co-lead Nickolas Platt, a courier driver and member of SEIU Local 49.

“It’s cool to watch from meeting to meeting how more people show up each time,” Hardy says. “The engagement of the team has increased as we began to see improvement, and people could see change.”

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Work With Patients to Ensure Follow-Up Appointments

Submitted by tyra.l.ferlatte on Tue, 08/19/2014 - 16:19
Hank
Request Number
Simple Notebook Improves Care
Long Teaser

By taking the time to find out patient preferences, unit assistants help patients keep their critical post-discharge appointments—and help KP avoid tens of thousands of dollars in readmission costs

Communicator (reporters)
Non-LMP
Editor (if known, reporters)
Tyra Ferlatte
Photos & Artwork (reporters)
Stephanie Valencia (left), a unit assistant, and Judith Gonzales, a senior unit assistant and the team's union co-lead, go over discharge-related paperwork.
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Work With Patients to Ensure Follow-Up Appointments
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Unit assistants help avoid costly readmissions
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Timely follow-up appointments can help prevent costly and stressful hospital readmissions.

But making these appointments can prove difficult during hectic hospital discharges, or after a patient has returned home.

Even when appointments are made, they aren’t always kept.

The Unit Assistants UBT at Redwood City Medical Center took on the challenge of increasing the number of follow-up appointments scheduled to occur within seven days after discharge.

Team members knew they could increase the likelihood of patients keeping these appointments by working with them and their family support members before they left the hospital.

“Obviously we can’t force a patient to go to an appointment, but we can try to make appointments when it’s suitable for them,” says union co-lead and senior unit assistant Judith Gonzales.

Starting with one hospital floor, unit assistants spoke with patients before they were discharged, taking notes on which days and times they preferred for appointments, and then passed the written information on to the staff members responsible for scheduling.

In eight weeks, the percentage of patients who kept their follow-up appointments jumped from 50 to 60 percent and soon the whole hospital was on board.

“We piloted in July 2013, and two months later we rolled it out to all the floors,” says management co-lead Amelia Chavez, director of operations, Patient Care Services. “Our percentages climbed and climbed. It was phenomenal.”

By January 2014, 86 percent of follow-up appointments at Redwood City were taking place in the seven-days, post-discharge window.

“The patients loved it; we included them in the process,” Gonzales says. “This improved our patient satisfaction scores as well.”

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Driver as Receptionist? Why Not?

Submitted by Laureen Lazarovici on Tue, 08/12/2014 - 11:04
Request Number
sty_mobilehealthvehicle_kern
Long Teaser

Union and management leaders in Kern County break through traditional positions to pioneer innovative health care delivery models and prepare for jobs of the future.

Communicator (reporters)
Laureen Lazarovici
Editor (if known, reporters)
Tyra Ferlatte
Photos & Artwork (reporters)
Driver Alfredo Alvarez rigs up the mobile health vehicle as the sun rises over Bakersfield. He'll drive it 40 miles to Tehachapi and spend the rest of the day checking in patients.
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Preparing for Jobs of the Future

Health care is changing, and you have to figure out how to continue to provide your patients with great care. Working through the problem is always a good step.

Here are some resources to give you some ideas and to help navigate those changes.

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Kern County union and management leaders work out innovative solution
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Hundreds of Kaiser Permanente health plan members live in the rural communities of Kern County. Faced with driving yawning distances through winding, sometimes snow-covered mountain passes, many find it daunting to come to clinics for medical care. So in March 2012, KP leaders in the service area started to bring care to these members via a mobile health vehicle.

Great idea, right? But first, they had to figure out the details. How many providers and staff members could fit in the van? Who was going to do which tasks? Could medical office assistants collect co-payments and schedule appointments? Or would they be too tied up giving shots, checking HealthConnect for care gaps and performing other duties? And what would the van drivers do when they weren’t driving?

Rewriting the playbook

The old-fashioned playbook would call for the union to insist that KP hire a receptionist for the van and for the employer to exercise its prerogative to do whatever it wanted. But the Labor Management Partnership is strong in Kern County, so union and KP leaders worked out a solution that transforms care delivery and provides a model for how jobs of the future can be flexible, innovative and satisfying. On Kern’s two mobile health vans, the drivers take on reception tasks, such as collecting co-payments and booking appointments.

“I love member service,” says driver Alfredo Alvarez, a UFCW Local 770 member. “We are in contact with doctors, nurses and members.” He and fellow driver Javier Gonzalez spent several weeks receiving additional training in clinics and a call center. “I am getting paid, so why not stay busy and learn new things?” says Alvarez. Today, the clinic on wheels provides more than 500 doctor and nurse visits a month.

Keeping up with change

Holly Davenport, a UFCW Local 770 union representative who helped negotiate the innovative work agreement, says she sometimes hears resistance from union activists who wonder if this type of arrangement will lead to job losses. “We have to keep up with the way health care is changing,” says Davenport. “We did this in partnership. I heard what management had to say, they heard what I had to say, and we worked it out.” 

Davenport gives credit for the successful solution to her strong, trust-based relationship with Candace Kielty, an assistant medical group administrator in Kern. Says Kielty: “My role as a manager is to paint the big picture. We want to serve an underserved population, and we want to meet people where they are.”

However, Kielty says creative problem solving cannot rely solely on individual relationships, but must be built into the structure and culture of Kaiser Permanente through the Labor Management Partnership.  

“When I hire department administrators, in the orientation and mentoring, I talk about developing trust,” says Kielty. “It's an expectation.”

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Help Your Team Build the Job Skills of the Future

Submitted by Paul Cohen on Tue, 08/12/2014 - 10:31
Tool Type
Format
manager tips on WFPD.ka.pc

Helping staff members build their skills is a win for workers, Kaiser Permanente and KP members and patients. A successful manager in San Diego shares her tips for doing just that.

Sherry Crosby
Non-LMP
Tool landing page copy (reporters)
Help Your Team Build Job Skills

Format:
PDF

Size:
8.5" x 11"

Intended audience: Frontline managers

Best used:
Use these tips with your team members to help them develop the skills they need to excel in the health care jobs of the future.

See an inspiring video about one worker who benefited from this manager's support: Redefining What's Possible

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Going Green

Request Number
video_VID-41_GoingGreen
Long Teaser

At Kaiser Permanente's Los Angeles Medical Center, 350 environmental services workers are putting the green training they received through ant educational trust to work. The result: Lower operating costs, improved patient and workplace safety and happier employees.

Communicator (reporters)
Non-LMP
Notes (as needed)
Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust can now be found online at: bhmt.org (instead of benhudnallmem...etc).
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VID-41_GoingGreen/VID-41_GoingGreen.zip
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2:50
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Date of publication

Kaiser Permanente and two Workforce Planning and Development trusts are training frontline workers in green practices. At Los Angeles Medical Center, 350 Environmental Services workers represented by SEIU-UHW are putting that training to work. The result: lower operating costs, improved workplace safety and happier employees. 

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Connecting With the Kids

Submitted by cassandra.braun on Fri, 07/11/2014 - 16:13
Request Number
hank40_ncal_childhealthprogram
Long Teaser

By attending community-based events, OPEIU Local 29 members are helping low-income families get Kaiser Permanente coverage for their children--and creating lasting goodwill.

Communicator (reporters)
Non-LMP
Editor (if known, reporters)
Tyra Ferlatte
Photos & Artwork (reporters)
OPEIU Local 29 members and enrollment processors Sharlene Jones (left) and Lucy Martinez spend a day at the Fresno County Fairgrounds, signing youngsters up for KP’s Child Health Program.
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Maury Rosas, (510) 625-6914

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Helping KP Grow

Everyone deserves and needs health care. Some groups could use a leg up to get the care they need.

Learn more about the many ways that unions and KP are working together to increase membership.

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Local 29 members are helping low-income families get Kaiser Permanente coverage for their kids
Story body part 1

For more than 10 years, Kaiser Permanente’s Child Health Program has been veiled in relative obscurity despite the extraordinary service it offers.

Even more unknown is the role KP enrollment processors in Northern California, who are represented by OPEIU Local 29, are playing in helping the charitable health program fulfill KP’s mission of serving our communities.

“I like to say that we’re the best-kept secret of KP,” says Sharlene Jones, an enrollment processor who screens applicants for eligibility and guides them through the sign-up process. The community benefit program provides comprehensive medical, dental and optical coverage at little or no cost to children ages 19 and younger whose family income falls below the federal poverty level and who have no other coverage options.

Since August, the Oakland-based enrollment processors have attended more than 40 health coverage enrollment or outreach events across Northern California, from informational sessions at small medical clinics to large events like the “We Connect Health Care” enrollment and resource fair in Fresno, which drew thousands of people. The processors answer any question thrown at them about the Child Health Program and help enroll those who qualify.

“Our processors are able to help families right on the spot,” says Sara Hurd, a former employee who until recently led outreach for the program. “They know what challenges are and how to work through them.”

Long-lasting value

The Child Health Program has a goal of enrolling 80,000 qualified children across Northern and Southern California. The work the Local 29 members are doing to help meet that goal fits within the framework of Labor Management Partnership efforts to grow the number of Kaiser Permanente members—and to establish positive member relationships that can last a lifetime.

As outreach coordinator, Hurd’s priority was getting the word out about the program and forging relationships with community organizations. She also served as the sole contact for prospective applicants at outreach events—but she didn’t have the detailed enrollment knowledge the Local 29 processors have.

Maury Rosas, manager of Charitable Health Coverage operations, reached out to enlist the processors’ help. Including them in the work, Hurd says, “has been invaluable”—and as of May 2014, more than 77,000 children were enrolled.

“We needed people who really understood what the applications are about and could help people with eligibility,” Rosas says. Before he requested their help in the field, the enrollment processors’ interactions with potential qualifying applicants were by phone or letter.

“We’re able to answer their questions,” Jones says. “It allows us to put a face on KP.”

Many of the processers who attend the events have bilingual certification and are skilled in walking applicants through enrollment in Spanish.

“It’s important to show (the public) that we’re not just sitting behind a desk, pushing papers,” says Miriam Garcia, an enrollment processor. “We’re the labor force behind it all….We’re here to work with the community and are proud of KP.”

Demonstrating a commitment

The effort has been an unqualified success, Rosas says, from community agencies asking for repeat visits to the response of the children’s parents.

“They took me by the hand and walked me through the process of completing the application and made me feel comfortable with the process,” says Rufina Garcia, speaking through a Spanish interpreter. Garcia enrolled her three children in the program at an outreach event in March. “This has been the first time when I could walk in and give my information and be signed up right there.”

Delivering on KP’s mission in partnership between labor and management also helps build relationships with potential union-oriented purchasers of health care, says Katy McKenzie, a consultant to LMP and its membership growth work.

“It goes a long way when you’re talking to unions that represent low-wage workers,” McKenzie says. “They see that we actually do care about caring for people and our communities. It’s not just about selling something to them.”

McKenzie and others involved in the growth work helped promote the Child Health Program to unions representing low-wage or part-time workers, such as laundry or home care workers—people who don’t get dependent health care coverage as part of their job benefits or who can’t afford what is offered to them.

 “It’s a great opportunity to see that management is working with labor as a team,” Miriam Garcia says. “We’re not only supporting KP, but we’re supporting our own labor force.  We’re showing that we can work together and make a change. We’re helping make a change that carries over into the community.”

That kind of caring makes an impression. Rufina Garcia, who only has catastrophic medical coverage for herself, says she would choose Kaiser Permanente for her whole family given the chance.

“It has been a wonderful experience,” she says. “The way they treat my children is incredible. (The doctors and nurses) are very caring—they have more patience and actually listen to the kids….I believe they take better care of my children.”

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SuperScrubs: Unlocking KP's Success Together

Submitted by Beverly White on Fri, 07/11/2014 - 16:11
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Role
hank40_comic

This full-page comic from the 2014 Summer Hank takes a humorous look at working together to make KP successful.

Tyra Ferlatte
Tyra Ferlatte
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SuperScrubs: Unlocking KP's Success Together

Format:
PDF (color or black and white)

Size:
8.5" x 11"

Intended audience:
Anyone with a sense of humor

Best used:
This full-page comic features two people working together to unlock the doors to KP's success. Enjoy, and be reminded that when we work together, we all contribute to KP's success.

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Summits Supercharge Performance Improvement Efforts

Submitted by Laureen Lazarovici on Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:16
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Request Number
sty_summits_SCAL
Long Teaser

UBT consultants in several Southern California facilities have brought co-leads together at several summit meetings--and found they give a big boost to improvement efforts.

Communicator (reporters)
Laureen Lazarovici
Editor (if known, reporters)
Tyra Ferlatte
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A spirited game of "KP-opoly" energizes UBT members as they plan their affordability projects.
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Additional resources

Michelle Aragones, Michelle.Rose.Aragones@kp.org, 818-719-4844

Susie Bulf, Suzanne.M.Bulf@kp.org, 909-427-5945

Priscilla Kania, Priscilla.A.Kania@kp.org, 909-724-2704

Sue Smith, Sue.A.Smith@kp.org, 619-516-6341

 

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Six Tips for a Successful UBT Summit

Getting key people together to advance an agenda or devise a strategy can be helpful for growth, but some simple steps will ensure success. Here's how:

  • Ensure high-level leaders (from management and unions) are the ones who invite employees and managers to participate. This will signal the event and its goals are high priorities.
  • Encourage speakers to inject fun and humor into their presentations to make them memorable.
  • Plan for activities and milestones, both before and after the summit.
  • Be realistic about the timeline for projects.  
  • Build in time and opportunities for UBT co-leads from different departments to interact with one another.
  • Provide a presentation template so your invited presenters don’t have to start from scratch.
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In addition to the training they provide, the events build energy and communicate priorities
Story body part 1

Want to supercharge efforts to improve performance and help reach Kaiser Permanente’s strategic goals? Then bring unit-based team leaders together for a summit.

UBT consultants at several facilities in Southern California have organized summits that focused on Performance Sharing Program (PSP) goals, performance improvement strategies and affordability projects. All say they are seeing results in the forms of more robust UBT projects, clearer SMART goals, and stronger alignment between top medical center leadership and the work of UBTs.

After seeing teams improve service scores, reduce workplace injuries and save more than $160,000 in just four months in the San Diego service area, Sue Smith, a senior UBT consultant, concludes, “The overall experience was wonderful. Many teams had an exciting opportunity to network with other teams and learn new skills in a fun way.”

This spring, San Diego Medical Center hosted a UBT affordability summit, which brought together co-leads for a half-day to build the skills to tackle a new PSP goal for 2014 in the region: to increase the percentage of UBTs that successfully complete a project with hard dollar savings or improved revenue capture. (The projects are reviewed by finance departments to ensure they could lead to cost savings.)

Seated around large tables, UBT co-leads played a spirited game of “KP-opoly,” which offered a crash course in the organization’s finances. They heard from a UBT whose work resulted in cost savings. And they had time to work on driver diagrams and process maps for their own team’s affordability projects.

Co-leads gain PI skills

The year before, San Diego leaders—inspired by an event at the Riverside Medical Center—had held a more general, daylong UBT summit. That event brought UBT co-leads together for intensive training on performance improvement tools and created a space for them to refine their existing projects. Deadlines were set for finalizing driver diagrams and process maps, beginning tests of change and formulating sustainability plans.

The effort culminated in a UBT fair that showcased the projects that had begun as mere inklings at the summit: The ultrasound UBT demonstrated how it had gone injury-free for six months (it had been having at least one injury per month); the diagnostic imaging department boosted patient satisfaction scores from 87 percent in May 2013 to 93 percent in December.  

Leaders at the Woodland Hills Medical Center followed the same playbook, hosting an LMP summit in April that launched an array of of affordability projects to be showcased at a UBT fair scheduled for mid-July.

Mobilizing on PSP

At Fontana and Ontario medical centers, UBT staff used the summit model to mobilize the workforce around all of the region’s PSP goals. Top leaders from both management and the unions kicked off the day, then gave subject matter experts each 10 minutes to discuss the goal (whether it be service, workplace safety, attendance, etc.) and challenge co-leads to take on a performance improvement project to tackle it. A highlight was an impassioned and dramatic account from Roy Wiles, president of Steelworkers Local 7600, about a union member who did such a good job of saving up unused sick time that he recently retired with a five-figure nest egg in his Health Reimbursement Account.

The key to attracting co-leads to the summits, the consultants say, is to plan well in advance and to enlist top leadership to encourage participation. That lets managers and employees make plans for attending while ensuring their departments’ operational needs are met.

“This is part of their work,” says Priscilla Kania, senior UBT consultant at Ontario. “Your leaders are inviting you. People are excited to be in the room with top leaders.”

Has your facility or region held a summit? Let us know all about it!

 

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Poster: Understanding Nurse Knowledge Exchange

Submitted by Beverly White on Thu, 06/26/2014 - 16:32
Tool Type
Format
Topics
bb2014_Understanding_Nurse_Knowledge_Exchange_Plus

This poster, which appears in the July/August 2014 Bulletin Board Packet, highlights the elements of the Nurse Knowledge Exchange Plan and can be shared during your UBT meetings to engage your team on how to implement this process.

Non-LMP
Tyra Ferlatte
Tool landing page copy (reporters)
Poster: Understanding Nurse Knowledge Exchange Plus

Format:
PDF

Size:
8.5” x 11”

Intended audience:
Frontline employees, managers and physicians

Best used:
This poster highlights the elements of the Nurse Knowledge Exchange Plan, and can be posted on bulletin boards, in break rooms and other staff areas.

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Total Health Presentation—Instant Recess

Submitted by Laureen Lazarovici on Tue, 06/24/2014 - 17:47
Tool Type
Format
Topics
ppt_virtualUBTfair_totalhealth_instantrecess

The virtual Instant Recess from the virtual UBT fair on Total Health. Use it at your next meeting!

Laureen Lazarovici
Tool landing page copy (reporters)
Total Health - Instant Recess

Format:
PDF

Size:
10-slide deck

Intended audience:
Total Health champions; UBT sponsors, consultants and co-leads

Best used:
This is the Instant Recess used during the virtual UBT fair on Total Health. Use for a three-minute Instant Recess, either virtually or in person.

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