service

Wouldn't it be nice when you entered a medical office building if there was a concierge to give directions, schedule appointments and answer other questions? That's a service some Kaiser Permanente members in San Diego are receiving. The Clairemont Mesa Primary Care UBT came up with the idea of placing a concierge outside of its office as a way to improve its service--as well as its "helpful and courteous" scores. Senior LMP VP Barb Grimm caught up with labor co-lead Jennifer Burgess at San Diego's UBT Fair to find out more.

Labor and management in every region are working together to make Kaiser Permanente the recognized model for delivery of high quality, affordable health care. And our Labor Management Partnership is a unique part of that model. At the 2011 Union Delegates Conference, LMP Senior VP Barb Grimm caught up with Dennis Deas, senior director of National Performance Improvement, to find out what every team should know to make KP the best—and the best at getting better.

It was on one of our seven-and-a-half hour flights to Hawaii that we encountered a flight attendant who seemed to be suffering from either a lack of sleep, overwork or just the frustration and stress of a job whose fortunes have declined badly over the past 10 years.

Good service is easy for a hospital patient to recognize. But when you're the care deliverer, it can be hard to know whether patients' needs are being met. Barb Grimm, LMP's senior VP, recently caught up with Hannah King, the director of UBT Service Quality, to find out what teams throughout KP are doing to make sure our members are receiving the best service—and that we are putting them at the center of everything we do.

At the 2011 Union Delegates Conference, LMP senior VP Barb Grimm caught up with Dawn Bading, Georgia’s vice president of Human Resources. The two talked about transformational leadership in Georgia and the innovative ways in which the region is improving service and growing membership.

Urgency!

This is the word that comes to mind as we begin the New Year. Merriam-Webster defines urgency as:

The quality or state of being urgent : insistence

A force or impulse that impels or constrains : urge 

Kaiser Permanente is a huge organization. Our workers and physicians care for 8.6 million members. Caregivers and support staff are busy, often feeling overwhelmed by the pace and precision with which we do our work. And, we are working to improve the care and service we provide every day, too.

So, when we talk of membership growth, many people wonder: how can we care for more patients, we are already so busy!

But, membership growth is crucial for everyone.

When we casually reveal where we work at social gatherings, most of us who work at KP get an earful. Often it’s positive. Some times it’s not. And sometimes friends, relatives or acquaintances ask us if they should join Kaiser Permanente.

Senior Veep Barb Grimm recently caught up with Donna Lynne, president of the Colorado region. They talked about the success of a Colorado optical team and the Baseline clinic team in providing superior service. And they discussed what the region's teams have learned that can help other UBTs.

Many of us are thinking about the opportunities that could open up for Kaiser Permanente with health care reform. Experts talk about Kaiser Permanente as one of the models that could be the “gold standard” of how to provide health care in the country. While the specifics of health care reform are still being defined, it is clear that many people who currently do not have health insurance will have access to coverage.