Physicians are on the front lines of Kaiser Permanente’s mission of providing quality, affordable care and service to our members. They are critical to

making KP’s unique, integrated-care system a model for health care in this country. And they have a key role to play on unit-based teams, Kaiser Permanente

and the Union Coalition’s strategy for high performance, which are central to both the mission and the model.

Unit-based teams bring new roles and

accountabilities for everyone, including doctors. Physicians, as they always have, play a leadership role in driving clinical excellence—but understanding

that modern care delivery involves an entire team, they engage in huddles with their work unit and seek ideas from all quarters. As UBTs seek to improve

performance through small tests of change, the physicians’ participation is paramount. The goal is to keep what’s best for patients and members at the center

of everything we do.

This section provides tools, tips and advice from physicians, for physicians, on how to work with your team. Stories about the

clinical outcomes that are being achieved by teams around the program also are highlighted here.