The Health Information Services department in Ohio has an ever-growing list of UBT successes—which team members say stems from the fact they took time up front to establish a strong foundation at the beginning.

While the details of its work are quite different than many UBTs, other teams can easily copy elements of this department’s team structure. Here are some of the Ohio team’s ideas that other teams might want to try.

Team members

The Ohio Health Information Services department set up a regional oversight team that includes the co-leads from each functional area’s unit-based teams—medical correspondence, medical transcription, scanning/quality assurance/indexing, and error correction. This way each area’s interests, ideas and workflow issues are sure to be considered.

Team structure

The oversight team spent time setting goals and establishing its charter, which paved the way for a clear direction.

The charter focuses on engaging all members of the unit to create a fully integrated team; establishing service and quality expectations for internal and external customers; and ensuring excellent organizational performance and job satisfaction.

“The goals in our charter are directly aligned with the successes of the team,” says Jeanette Manson, Health Information Services manager and UBT co-lead.

Hold meetings

Many teams struggle with when to hold meetings and how to free up time for them. The oversight team solved this issue by going back to each of the functional area UBTs and asking them for their thoughts and ideas. In the end, the teams’ collaborative effort provided the solutions.

Agreements were made between functional areas to cover each other during meeting times. An employee who works in the quality assurance and indexing area, for example,  volunteered to cover phones and the intake desk in medical correspondence so that those employees could attend their area’s meeting.

In addition, meeting times are rotated monthly to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate.

“Not having meetings had a negative impact on staff. We’ve been able to figure out ways to have meetings in every functional area,” Manson says.  “People like to come to the meetings because they know that issues will get worked.”

Communication

The oversight UBT recognized the value of communication from the start. At the end of every meeting they create a “communication cascade.” The team members agree on key messages to send out to the department’s other UBTs, making specific communication assignments so everyone is clear on who is supposed to talk with whom, and bring information back to the group. They also identify issues where they need more information.

“We realized early on we needed to get all of the department involved, and we needed input from everyone,” says Kathy Johnson, labor co-lead and medical transcriptionist II with OPEIU Local 17.

Education

Identifying training needs proved to be time well spent for the oversight team. They identified gaps in their training and education early in the process of becoming an oversight group. They made the time to do training on working styles, conflict management and communication skills.

As they helped other teams develop, they realized there were gaps not just within the oversight group but also within the entire department. Training for UBT Roles and Responsibilities was given to all staff as the teams got off the ground, as well as other “just in time” trainings such as consensus decision making.

Manson advises other team co-leads to “make sure staff (members) have the tools they need to implement, a mechanism to communicate, and training. Follow the basic guidelines, use the tools and stay on track.”

“The UBT has really helped out this department in many ways. If there’s a problem, we can deal with it,” says Johnson.

“It’s not something extra to do,” Manson says. “It’s a new way to do business.”

For more information about this team, contact the co-leads at Jeanette.Manson@kp.org or Kathleen.T.Johnson@kp.org.