Q3-2021 | ISSUE 57 FRONTLINE NEWS FOR KP WORKERS, MANAGERS AND PHYSICIANS IN THIS ISSUE VACCINATING IN PARTNERSHIP EASING BACK INTO THE OFFICE • HIGH HOPES P PARTNERSHIP2 HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 What Is Hank ? Hank is an award-winning journal named in honor of Kaiser Permanente’s visionary co-founder and innovator, Henry J. Kaiser. HANK’S MISSION: Highlight the successes and struggles of the Labor Management Partnership, which is jointly led by Kaiser Permanente and the Partnership unions and recognized as a model operating strategy for health care. Hank is published a few times a year for the Partnership’s 160,000+ workers, managers, physicians and dentists. All of them are working to make Kaiser Permanente the best place to receive care and the best place to work — and in the process are making health care history. For a list of unions belonging to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, please visit UnionCoalition.org . For a list of unions belonging to the Alliance of Health Care Unions, please visit AHCUnions.org . For information about the management and union co-leads advancing partnership in your region, please visit LMPartnership.org . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Published by Kaiser Permanente, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and the Alliance of Health Care Unions COMMUNICATIONS CO-LEADS Sherry Crosby Caroline Lucas Brenda Rodriguez EDITOR Alec Rosenberg GRAPHIC DESIGN Travis Retter Stoller Design Group CONTRIBUTORS Guy Ashley Jennifer Bellisario Renata Gonzales Laureen Lazarovici Laurie Lezin-Schmidt Tracy Lee Silveria Beverly White Photos contributed by individual team members, except where credited. COPY EDITOR Colleen O’Neill Email feedback to hank@kp.org.HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 3 LMPARTNERSHIP.ORG/HANK Easing Back Into the Office Expert offers tips for employees and teams to reduce stress. Tool Time Find help at your fingertips on LMPartnership.org. Why I Got Vaccinated Humans of Partnership tackle vaccine hesitancy. Contents OTHER FEATURES 4 Editor’s Letter 20 Video: High Hopes 22 Puzzles and Games 24 Back Cover Poster 6 12 18 16 COVER STORY: VACCINATING IN PARTNERSHIP Workers, managers and physicians team up to combat COVID-19.4 HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 LMPARTNERSHIP.ORG/HANK The Power of Partnership IT’S SUMMERTIME, and the living has been far from easy. The past year-plus has seen a global pandemic, social unrest and political turmoil. But signs of hope are emerging. Vaccines are helping to turn the tide against COVID-19. As we move forward, the Labor Management Partnership has played a key part in supporting vaccinations. Our cover story highlights how labor-doctor huddles and community collaborations have helped get more shots in arms — and provides tips for boosting vaccine confidence and increasing inoculations. See our Humans of Partnership, where employees share heartfelt stories of why they got vaccinated. It’s OK if you cry. With conditions improving, many nonclinical employees are preparing to return to the office. Our Q&A with a licensed clinical social worker offers advice about how you and your teams can reduce stress related to the transition. When it comes to advancing the Partnership, LMPartnership.org offers more than 700 tools to help you and your teams complete your performance improvement work. See our guide to finding the right tool, along with links to a few of our favorites. Meanwhile, Washington has become the newest region to join the Labor Management Partnership. Watch a video in which team members share their hopes about working in partnership. Also, don’t miss our puzzles and games for reminders of how to protect you and your family against COVID-19. And check out our back cover for convenient ways to fill and manage your prescriptions. Lastly, the movie “Back to the Future” — a summertime release — inspired our front cover. As we reflect on the pandemic, we thank you for your partnership. Such collaboration offers hope for a healthier future. HANK EDITOR’S LETTER Partnership helps provide a shot in the arm Bringing hope: Medical assistant Luz Rodriguez-Bandala, an SEIU-UHW member, helps out at a vaccination tent at Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center in Northern California. PHOTO BY: Laura MortonHANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 56 HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 Building immunity: Licensed vocational nurse Alia Easy, an SEIU-UHW member, administers a COVID-19 vaccine to David Sprecher, RN, a clinical director, at a vaccination tent in Northern California.HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 7 LMPARTNERSHIP.ORG/HANK COVER STORY Workers, managers and physicians team up to combat COVID-19 S WE MOVE toward the “next normal,” the Labor Management Partnership has played a key part in supporting COVID-19 vaccinations. Frontline workers, doctors and managers have come together to get shots in arms. These fruitful collaborations point the way forward as Kaiser Permanente and the Partnership unions work to transform fear into confidence, confusion into clarity, and hesitancy into bold action. CONTINUES ON PAGE 8 VACCINATING IN PARTNERSHIP ARTICLE BY: Laureen Lazarovici | PHOTOS BY: Laura Morton A8 HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 VACCINATING IN PARTNERSHIP (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7) Look at the data A joint effort between SEIU-UHW and physicians pushed vaccination rates of the union’s members from less than 50% all the way up to 64% within 3 months. It began when union leaders crunched the numbers — and didn’t like what they saw. At the beginning of February, less than half of SEIU-UHW members at Kaiser Permanente were vaccinated against COVID-19. For instance, only 40% of union employees were vaccinated in the Emergency Department at Downey Medical Center in Southern California, where Gabriel Montoya works as an emergency medical technician. Montoya and his fellow union members — working with physicians and managers — wanted to raise those rates, so they pulled together labor-doctor huddles. Union members were scared, confused and hesitant. Building trust At first, they considered joint physician-labor rounding. But they realized being in patient areas wouldn’t support those conversations, so they pivoted to huddles — short, informal team meetings. Carol Ishimatsu, MD, a pediatrician with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, was one of the first doctors to join a huddle in Downey. HANK Q3-2021 • ISSUE 57 9 LMPARTNERSHIP.ORG/HANK “Vaccines are our most important intervention,” says Dr. Ishimatsu, who participated in the clinical trials for the shots when they were being tested. To build trust, Dr. Ishimatsu emphasized her shared experience with SEIU-UHW members as warriors on the front line. “I told the employees: I do the same thing you do after work,” she says, describing her ritual of removing her clothes in the garage and putting them directly in the washing machine before entering the house. “We are in different professions, doing the same thing.” CONTINUES ON PAGE 10 RISING VACCINATION RATES A joint effort between SEIU-UHW and physicians increased vaccinations of the union's members in 2021. Taking our shots: Collaborative efforts between labor and management, such as at this Kaiser Permanente vaccination tent in Northern California (above left and above), have helped increase COVID-19 vaccinations. <50% FEBRUARY 64% APRILNext >