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 

Urgency does not mean going fast or taking shortcuts. 

We are indeed in a state of being urgent. Our current National Agreement will expire in less than two years and we will be back at the bargaining table in the spring of 2012. 

This is what we must accomplish in 2011: 

• We have agreed to double the number of high-performing teams in 2011 from 2010 year-end levels. 
• We have agreed to try to reach agreement on how to contain the cost of health care benefits for Kaiser Permanente employees, to set the foundation for 2012 bargaining.
• We have agreed to educate frontline employees about the business of KP and its unions. That means that everyone must fully understand the external economic, public policy and competitive environment within which we operate, as well as understand the business concepts that drive both KP and the unions. What’s more, we need to incorporate that understanding into our frontline work. 
• We have agreed to get much healthier! We know that we can reduce the cost of health care, reduce work-related illness, injury and stress, and improve attendance if we take a holistic and organization-wide approach to improving health. We plan to create a healthy work environment involving every unit-based team.
• We have agreed to strengthen sponsorship and understanding of the work of the front line by middle-level managers, physicians and staff. This will require commitment of time and energy. 
• We have agreed the 2010 National Agreement and the Kaiser Permanente Strategic Plan function as our operative guidelines and the Value Compass applies to everyone.
• We have agreed to grow Kaiser Permanente membership by 3 percent in 2011 and every year thereafter. That’s a net of a quarter-million new members per year! It also means that we must retain the members we have. We must work hard to reduce the thousands of members we lose each year whether by choice or because their employer switches insurance! 
• We have agreed to chart the workforce of the future; to create more capability to plan for workforce needs in the rapidly changing environment of delivery system reform and technological change; we will continue to rely on our Employment and Income Security Agreement.

Health care reform

2011 is also the year that we can expect broader implementation of the reform of our nation’s health care delivery system. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 demands quality improvement and cost savings through systems that look just like Kaiser Permanente’s: integration of care and services, electronic medical records, and enhanced Medicare payments based on improved outcomes for patient populations. There will be disincentives for errors, re-admissions, hospital-acquired infections and other preventable waste of patients’ well-being and precious dollars.

We believe that through the Labor Management Partnership, we can make the Kaiser Permanente model work like never before and lead the nation on a path of health care reform. Such reform is essential if we are to reduce cost and improve quality as the nation readies itself to extend coverage to at least 32 million more people.

2012 will be a year of national elections. It will also be a year of bargaining for us in the LMP.

Can there be any doubt about the urgency inherent in 2011?

We must be insistent; we must urge.

I wish everyone the best and for a happy and peaceful New Year.