Kaiser Permanente gets high marks

Labor-management cooperation language written into a five-year contract with several unions at Kaiser Permanente has been partially credited for high marks the health care group received on a report card tracking quality of health care.

The independent non-profit National Committee for Quality Assurance ranked Kaiser Permanente of the Pacific Northwest in the top five of 20 health plans it tracked in Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii and Alaska. Three others listed in the top five were Kaiser plans in Hawaii, Northern California and Southern California. The fifth was Group Health Cooperative in Washington.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance evaluated the effectiveness of care of more than 200 health plans nationwide, comparing the different plans on breast and cervical cancer screening, cholesterol management after a heart attack, diabetes care, prenatal and postpartum care and high blood pressure control.

“What these rankings tell the public is that the approach to improving health taken by Kaiser Permanente doctors and other health care professionals is working,” said Allan Weiland, regional medical director for Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest Region.

Weiland also credits the success in improving health care for Kaiser Permanente members to the advantages of having health care professionals practice in a coordinated program.

“The only health plans to rank in the top five in the Pacific states were from Kaiser Permanente and the similarly organized Group Health Cooperative. That says a lot about the worth of a program where care and service are well coordinated,” said Cynthia Finter, president of Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest Region.

Kathy Schmidt, a registered nurse and member of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP) Local 5017 at Kaiser’s Sunnyside Hospital in Clackamas, said the ranking is acknowledgement of how Kaiser Permanente employees have focused on improving both care and service to patients.

“Employees are extremely committed to improving all aspects of our patients’ health care experience with the physicians and health plan managers in their work teams,” said Schmidt, who also is national coordinator for the Coalition of Kaiser Permanent Unions.

The coalition consists of 25 locals from eight international unions representing some 62,000 employees.

Ninety-two percent of all unionized employees working for Kaiser Permanente in the Portland metropolitan area are covered by the agreement, including nurses, dental hygienists and technical employees who are members of OFNHP Local 5017; housekeepers, cafeteria workers and service providers who are members of Service Employees International Union Local 49; and pharmacy techs and radiology employees with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. [Several other local unions that represent small numbers of Kaiser employees were not part of the joint bargaining, including the Oregon Nurses Association, Guild for Professional Pharmacists and Operating Engineers Local 701.]

Employees are in the third year of the five-year agreement, which among other things, created committees with equal numbers of union members and managers to determine staffing levels and other matters that affect patient care; formalized training to help teams of health care providers, from phone screeners to doctors, work together more smoothly; and guaranteed no layoffs unless an entire Kaiser Permanente facility closed.

© Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.