Our members and patients count on Kaiser Permanente for affordable, quality care — and more unit-based teams than ever are focusing on ways to improve efficiency as well as service and quality. In fact, service or quality care improvements often lead to more cost-effective care, which benefits KP, our workforce and, most of all, our members and patients. Use these tips to jump-start your team’s thinking about the financial impacts of your improvements.

1. Think about potential financial impact from the start of your project. This will help you identify early on the data to collect and monitor so the financial impact can be calculated later. Keeping the financial impact in mind can also help refine your SMART goal.
2. Get a good grasp of what you’re trying to improve. Then think about the cost associated with that thing. For instance, if your goal is to streamline scheduling, think about the potential costs, such as excessive overtime, associated with an inefficient schedule.
3. Have a clear understanding of your baseline metric. Once you know what your goal is, determine the associated costs before any changes are made. This will help you translate the improvement into money saved.
4. Work with your local finance team. If you don’t have a relationship with your local finance department, ask your UBT consultant or improvement advisor to connect you with the right person to help you determine the dollar value of a project.
5. Find out if there’s a team in your facility or service area that is working on something similar.
6. Another team may already have figured out ways to calculate the financial impact your project might have or may have different ideas for measuring its financial benefit.
7. Look beyond the hard dollar savings. “Soft dollars” can be equally important. These are avoided costs or improvements that don’t reduce the money spent but allow us to do more with the resources we have. Examples include improvements in re-admission rates, number of no-show appointments or time spent looking for supplies.
8. Value the financial impact of small improvements. If an improvement and its estimated financial impact seem small, remember to figure out the potential savings over time or add up what happens if the practice spreads to other departments or facilities.

Is your department’s supply room or cabinet cluttered with a mix of overstocked, understocked and out-of-date materials? Throughout Kaiser Permanente, unit-based teams are taking stock of their supplies and finding they can save time and money by designing better systems for organizing and ordering supplies. Reducing supply waste is one of many ways that teams are helping KP become more affordable for our members and patients.Sort your supplies to determine which ones to keep, which should be disposed of, and which you need more information about before deciding.

1. Create an opportunity for everyone in the department to give input about how often different supplies get used, so you don’t eliminate something the department needs.
2. Organize the supplies by figuring out where each item belongs and then labeling supplies and shelves. Also set “par” levels, figuring out the quantity the department should always have on hand.
3. Remember safety when organizing the supplies. Make sure people won’t have to bend too low, reach too far or lift something that’s too heavy.
4. Establish a signal for when supplies need to be re-ordered. For example, the signal might beflipping the bin upside down, filling out a re-order card or alerting whoever oversees ordering supplies. And have a system for alerting people when an item is getting close to its expiration date.
6. Routinize the new system by having a plan to make sure supplies stay sorted, in order and clean. For example, create a checklist to make sure the new procedures are followed or assign someone to sign off at the end of the day that the supplies are ready for the next day’s work.
7. Check in regularly with other team members to make sure the new system is working and to tweak it if it needs adjustments.
8. Consider approaching departments similar to yours that may order the same supplies. You may be able to consolidate orders. For example, many departments in the same medical facility order sutures.
9. Calculate how much money you’ve saved. Compare what you were spending before on supplies to what you’re spending now.
10. Take before and after pictures to help you communicate the story of how your department reduced waste.

Unit-based teams can play a part in greening our environment and saving money. Involve your team in tests of change around recycling or reducing supply waste.

1. Coordinate with other departments, such as EVS, materials management or procurement and supply, on green tests of change — or “embed” a member of one of these departments in your UBT.
2. Work with your facility’s waste-hauling vendors to find out what types of materials and supplies can be recycled, and place recycling bins strategically in cafeterias and near exits.
3. Cut down on costly, wasteful single-use medical devices or supplies as part of performance improvement efforts.
4. EVS teams: Switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products and supplies.
5. Invite your teammates to shop for locally sourced, organic fruits and vegetables at the nearest KP weekly farmer’s market.
6. Host a monthly healthy salad bar, like the UBT at San Diego’s Positive Choice clinic did in its successful effort to improve attendance.
7. Replace thirsty plants for drought-tolerant alternatives, as several teams in Northern and Southern California have done.
8. Go paperless: Don’t print out agendas and documents; send them out via email or show on a projector instead.
9. Recruit a champion in your department to be on the lookout for new opportunities and coach others on greening their workplace.

Keeping the affordability point on the Value Compass in mind, unit-based teams are taking a hard look at the obstacles to collecting copayments and conducting small tests of change around proposed improvements. New practices like these are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenue.

1. Educate employees about the importance of copay collection.
2. Train employees in how to ask for payment. Use role playing to help them become more comfortable with asking for payments, and create and distribute talking points or scripts.
3. Provide visual reminders for members to check in at the front desk, so a receptionist can determine if a copayment is due.
4. Post a sign with a telephone number directing patients with questions about co-payments and financial concerns to a financial counselor.
5. Call patients a week in advance of a scheduled procedure to advise them a copay will be due and, if possible, to collect it before they are admitted.
6. Add the copayment amount to patient’s outstanding balance and ask for the total amount. If balance is $100 or more, ask for payment on the account.
7. Refer patients who can’t afford to pay to facility-based financial counselors.
8. Station a full-time financial counselor in the Emergency Department.
9. Make sure financial aid applications are processed promptly by having co-workers share the load. Report workload status at weekly huddles.
10. Create a uniform note-taking system for financial forms and assign a counselor to every patient referred to financial services.

Program description

The Business Literacy Series (BLS) is a highly interactive and engaging curriculum designed to educate frontline teams/departments about the business of Kaiser Permanente. These face-to-face courses encourage active learning through group activities. Courses may be delivered at a dedicated training session or be used as just-in-time tools at staff meetings, UBT meetings or brown bag sessions to meet the needs of each region, service area or medical center.

Scroll down for details on each course or download an at-a-glance description.

Path to Performance

Level 3

Duration

Each course runs between 45 and 55 minutes:

• KP’s Integrated Business Model (IBM), 45 minutes
• Revenue Expenses and Margins (REM), 50 minutes
• Health Care Costs and Trends (HCCT), 55 minutes
• External Measures of Success: How UBTs Can Influence KP’s Scores (EMS), 45 minutes
• Our Unit-Based Team Perspective and People Pulse (UBTP), 45 minutes
• A KP History Timeline (HT), 55 minutes

Who should attend

Job categories include labor and management members of a unit-based team.

Program requirements

It is recommended participants have completed their foundational LMP training for level 1 and 2 teams.

BLS series course objectives and learning outcomes

KP’s Integrated Business Model (IBM)

This 45-minute course explains KP's unique business model: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (or locally contracted hospital services). At the end of this session, learners will be able to explain the competitive advantages of this model and the benefits to KP members.

Revenue, Expenses and Margin (REM)

This 50-minute course shows how our decisions and actions can influence the cost of care to KP members and patients. REM focuses on KP’s primary sources of revenue, and how revenues and expenses are allocated across the organization. Learners discuss factors that may lead revenues to rise or fall, and the need to have and meet a margin. At the end of this session, learners will understand the importance of participating in affordability projects.

Health Care Costs and Trends (HCCT)

This 55-minute course examines the financial challenges facing KP members who struggle to afford health care services. It addresses rising health care costs and current trends in today’s changing marketplace. Through video clips, group discussions and brainstorming, participants are encouraged to think about what they can do as individuals and unit-based team members to help improve operations and reduce waste. At the end of this session, learners will understand the need to play a role in improving the affordability of care.

External Measures of Success (EMS)

This 45-minute course shows the connection between the work teams do and the external measures used in the marketplace to evaluate KP’s success. The course offers an overview of key (publically reported) performance metrics, such as the Medicare Star Quality Ratings System, HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set), CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Plans and Systems) and HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Plans and Systems). Learners review case studies and KP service scores that are linked to UBT development. At the end of this session, learners will understand how their unit-based teams can influence these metrics and have a positive impact on KP’s external measures of success.

Our Unit-Based Team Perspective (UBTP)

This 45-minute course brings home the personal side of performance improvement. Participants discuss their experiences working in a unit-based team. Using selected People Pulse survey results and learning exercises, this course shows the benefits of UBTs as a business model. Discussions include how engagement in a UBT influences business performance and the work environment. At the end of this session, learners will be equipped and energized to be part of a high-performing team/department.

A KP History Timeline (HT)

This 55-minute course builds understanding of KP’s mission and accomplishments. It identifies key events that led Kaiser Permanente to its integrated business model and made us a leader in health care. It also reviews how our Labor Management Partnership has influenced KP’s development and strengthened KP and the unions. At the end of this session, learners will feel proud of their contributions to the health of our communities, and how to be effective ambassadors for KP.

FAQs

Q: Does my team need to complete all courses to fulfill requirements for business literacy?

A: Business literacy training requirements are determined by each region. For more details, connect with your corresponding unit-based team consultant or your regional LMP training office.

Q: What is the difference between the Business Literacy Series and some existing business literacy modules?

A: Click here for details.