Stories

Medical assistant Abelene Cerezo-Kirtley can better care for her patients—and her dad (above)—thanks to new skills learned in the digital fluency program.

Who will care for the caregiver? Using human-centered design concepts, patients, their family members, frontline workers and KP leaders are finding ways to ensure patients are safe at home and caregivers get the support they need. 

Unit-based teams are one of the key innovations of the Labor Management Partnership, creating a platform for consistently involving frontline workers in problem solving. Shown here, members of the South Sacramento Medical Center Emergency Department clerical UBT, which launched a project to use portable laptops to capture patient signatures at intake and discharge, saving nearly $90,000 in 2016. 

I'm a believer: Emile Pinera, MD, was skeptical about UBTs at first. After seeing how partnership led to results for his patients, he's sold.

Now hear this: Leaders and members of this UBT benefit from each other’s complementary workplace experiences. Pictured (left to right) are Lynn Reese, Au.D., a UFCW Local 400 member; Roger Wallace, clinician; and Caroline Masikonde, clinical operations manager. 

Laughing out loud: Co-leads Terri Imbach, James R. O’Brien, MD, and Christina English, LPN, use fun to shake things up for their Mt. Scott Medical Office unit-based team. 

"I look at (partnership) as a marriage," says Denice L. Washington, an OPEIU Local 29 business representative who is the labor co-lead to the Northern California LMP Steering Committee. "You have to work at a marriage every day. Don’t take it for granted....There are hard conversations that have to happen, and you’ve got to have the ability to trust your partner and be open and receptive to ideas."
Visit the Humans of Partnership page for more 20th anniversary reflections. 

Into the future: A digital fluency pilot program launched recently, one of many accomplishments of the LMP national programs. 

Let's talk: UBT co-leads Antronette Moore-Mohead and Joanna Harris model great relationship skills. 

Ironworkers at Niacet Chemical Company, Niagara Falls, New York, 1928; Cliff Keene second from left. 1929 union card, International Association of Bridge, Ornamental, and Structural Ironworkers. Images courtesy Steve Gilford, from the personal collection of Clifford Keene.