Solving Problems between Departments: Pediatric Administration, Pediatric Scheduling, and Referral Management

When a department first puts an idea board up and begins to hold weekly improvement huddles, they are often encouraged to focus first on the problems that are entirely within their “span of control”: those things that the department can fix quickly and cheaply without another department needing to get involved.  But we all know that many of the biggest, most frustrating barriers that caregivers here at UMass Memorial face are between and across departments.  These problems can be very hard to fully understand and fix, but like any other problem, the people who are best placed to fix those problems are the ones at the frontline, doing and experiencing the work.

The Background to the Story

SHARE Rep Maria Wentworth and the idea board she helped start

SHARE has been working intensively over the last several months to bring all the idea boards in Patient Access Services at the Worcester Business Center up to 5 star status, including the pediatrics schedulers and referral management.  As it turns out, SHARE has also begun coaching a newly re-launched idea board with the Pediatrics admins at the university campus (championed by SHARE rep Maria Wentworth, among others).  At the huddles, SHARE Organizer Will Erickson heard Pedi admins voicing concerns about both the process for scheduling pediatric appointments and patients showing up for appointments without a completed referral. Will offered to facilitate an idea board visit, bringing one of the admins over to the WBC to attend the huddles there.  The two departments at the WBC embraced the idea (with the schedulers even agreeing to change their huddle time to make it more convenient for their guest to attend). 

Visiting another Department's Idea Board Huddle

 A little over a week later Jess Kowaleski, the lead for the admins, began her day at the WBC, a building she hadn’t previously visited.  First came the schedulers’ huddle, where she heard about how difficult it can be to schedule certain appointments, and answered questions from staff about the best way to escalate scheduling issues.  It was their best attended huddle ever, and several new ideas resulted from their conversation.  Later, after attending the PAS management huddle, getting a tour of the ten or so idea boards on the 5^th floor of the WBC, and checking out the IS visual management system on the 4^th floor, Jess attended the referral management huddle.  At that huddle Jess heard about many of the problems the staff there face, as well as things the Pedi admins can do to make it easier for a referral to be completed (such as sending a task rather than an email).  Jess even hung around afterward to observe SHARE member Jackie McPhee complete a few referrals and better understand how difficult the current process is. 

Finding Solutions -- Much Easier when You Understand Each Other's Work

When you don’t fully understand another department’s part of a process and are frustrated by that process’ unreliability or difficulty, it is sometimes easy to blame the staff in the other department.  This idea board visit resulted in a lot of new great ideas and made impossible fixes suddenly seem possible, but it also strengthened the respect these teams felt for one another’s work: a critical foundation for future improvements. 

Could this Work for Your Department?

If your  department has been coming up with fewer ideas lately, don’t be afraid to push the scope a little.  Try asking your coworkers what ideas they wish were on other departments’ idea boards; what could other departments do or change that would make it easier for you to do your job well?  A next step might be to arrange a visit with that department where you ask what your team could be doing to make that department’s job easier.  If you’re interested in thinking more about how to do this, contact will.erickson@theshareunion.org.

2016 Central Massachusetts AFL/CIO College Scholarship

The SHARE office recently received the following notice in the mail from Joe Carlson, the President of the Central Massachusetts AFL/CIO, about a really great scholarship opportunity for our members. The lottery for these scholarships will be open to any SHARE members, as well as children and grandchildren of our members, who will graduate from high school this year and attend college next year. The details are posted below. Please note that applications should NOT be sent to the SHARE office. If you would like a copy of the nomination form, please click here.

***

To: All Affiliated Locals of the Central Mass AFL/CIO,

We are pleased to announce that we will be awarding six $1,000.00 scholarships as well as a number of  $500 Platinum sponsored scholarships.

The scholarship recipients will be drawn by lottery at the May community services committee meeting and the winners will be announced at the Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament on Friday, June 3, 2016.

The scholarships will be presented at the Labor Day breakfast September 5 2016

To be eligible, the student must be a 2016 graduating high school senior and going on to college, and a child, grandchild, or member whose local is affiliated with the Central Ma. AFL/CIO. Union members must live or work in the jurisdiction of the Central Ma. AFL/CIO.

All names must be submitted by April 29, 2016 and returned to:

Paul Soucy

AFL/CIO Labor Community Services

Central Ma. AFL-CIO

400 Washington St

Auburn, Ma. 01501

Fraternally Yours,
Joseph P. Carlson, President
Central Massachusetts AFL/CIO

One Kaiser Permanente Unit-Based Team, and $47,000 Worth of IUDs

The hospital workers from Kaiser Permanente that I met at IHI all seemed so proud of the work their unit-based teams are doing.

A good example are the three co-leads of a unit-based team from the OB/Gyn clinic of Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center: Richardson, the manager; Brittanye an LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurse, like our LPNs); and Marcia, a Nurse Practitioner. Brittanye and Marcia are both union leaders, from 2 different unions.

How Unit-Based Teams Change the Day-to-Day Experience at Work at Kaiser

When I asked how the unit-based team changes work for her, Brittanye told me, “You have more input. It makes us feel better because our voice is heard. When we are asked, we feel we are going to be listened to…. It’s more collaborative, not management saying ‘this is how it’s going to be.’ We can make it better and get the job done.”

Richardson, the clinic manager, said their unit-based team collapsed the first time they tried to get it going, but now it's thriving. “Finally we have a team where we all listen to each other. We aren’t just talking at each other… We respect each other. I want our department to shine. I have pride in my department, and I trust my employees. I have pride in what we work on together. I listen to what they say. It fills me with joy to see them thinking outside the box, and to see how much they care about the patients.”

Harvesting Old IUDs to Improve Work and Patient Care

One of this unit-based teams projects was setting up a process to return unneeded IUDs, which are worth about $500 each when returned to the company. Creating a new, and smooth, process to make sure the IUDs didn’t get trashed involved the front desk, the Medical Assistants, the physicians, and the LVNs.  As Richardson said, “It wouldn’t be successful if we didn’t have the engagement of everyone.”

Over 11 months, the OB/Gyn clinic saved $47,000 by returning IUDs. Brittanye said they were able to buy 5 new ultrasound probes with the money they saved last year. “That increases access for our patients, and they have to wait less. The staff is happier and it’s not as stressful.”

Why Kaiser and the Unions Created Unit-Based Teams

The coalition of unions at Kaiser and Kaiser Permanente management negotiated to put in their contract a system of unit-based teams in every department. Unit-based teams tap into the knowledge and experience of front-line staff, managers and physicians. According to the Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership website, “These teams are transforming Kaiser Permanente by changing the roles of union members and managers and creating an environment in which all employees are encouraged to think critically about problem solving and work innovations.”

SHARE and UMass Memorial senior management have invited a union and a management representative of the Kaiser Permanent Labor Management Partnership to visit UMass Memorial, to explain how their unit-based teams work. 

(The first 2 pictures show the OB/Gyn Unit-Based Team at a celebration of unit-based teams' work. The 3rd picture shows the three co-leads that I met at IHI -- Brittanye, Richardson, and Marcia.  -- Janet Wilder)

Looking at How Other Hospital Unions Are Making Work Better

One main focus of the upcoming contract negotiations for SHARE will be improving the day-to-day experience for SHARE members. To prepare, SHARE is looking at what other hospitals and unions are doing.

The annual IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) conference is a great place to meet people doing innovative work. IHI is a world leader in the effort to improve healthcare, and to make good care available to everyone. The conference brings together healthcare leaders, front-line employees, nurses, doctors, medical students, administrators, and a few of us from organized labor. It was inspiring to be with over five thousand people from all over the world who are trying to make their hospitals better.

Highlights from other unions:

• UNITE HERE, a union that represents hotel workers in Los Angeles, is running classes for their members (voluntary, of course) in self-management of chronic disease. Many members are feeling healthier, and they are keeping the costs of their health insurance down. (For more info, see link to video, link to report with health outcomes data.)
• CIR (the Committee of Interns and Residents, a union of doctors), teaches process improvement to new doctors, who are motivated to gain those skills and experiences to use in their careers. You can read about them here, here and here.
• I got to learn a lot more about the Labor Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente. The best part was meeting the union & manager co-leaders of unit-based teams in their departments. Kaiser rewards the 30 best unit-based teams every year by sending the co-lead to the IHI conference.
•  I went to a workshop from Kaiser called "Workers and Patients: A Single Culture of Safety" where they said that the best prevention for injuries is to have a good team, where workers feel free to speak up when they see something that could be improved.

The Labor Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente is really changing the role of frontline staff at their hospitals, and we want to learn a lot more about how they are doing it. This week, we are hosting a series of meetings with a union and a management leader from Kaiser Permanente -- more on that soon.

Pictured: Maggie Ridings, LPN (right) and Jane Baxter, Nurse Manager. Maggie and Jane are co-leads of a unit-based team in the OB/Gyn department and clinic in Alpharetta, Georgia. One of their team's projects was to develop a system to help their patients be sure to pick the right hospital for their delivery, saving their patients money and helping Kaiser Permanente to keep their healthcare affordable. In another project, they built a garden to encourage healthy living for patients and staff. 

Process Improvement Spotlight: Mapping Out New Solutions in Insurance Verfication

GROWING and GROWING HEADACHES

Even routine work can get confusing quickly around here. As our hospital grows and technology advances, new complexity arises in the day-to-day. Marion Galeckas, an Insurance Verifier in Patient Access Services, has been making sense of that change throughout her twenty-two years working at UMass Memorial. She works in the Insurance Verification Department specializing in auto liability encounters, where the problems are naturally complex.

Not long ago, in the Idea Board huddle in this area, the staff recognized that they could solve some problems by changing how they communicate about them. I talked with Marion a little bit about their process. It’s a model worth sharing.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS: A FAMILIAR MUDDLE?

Marion is part of the team that makes sure a patient’s hospital bills get sent to--and paid by--the correct insurance plan, whether that’s the patient’s health-insurance or auto-insurance company. Marion spends a lot of time investigating accidents. She speaks with local police departments. She collects a lot of details about automobiles and their owners. She’s been at this for a while. She’s sharp. She’s learned a lot. She’s a professional, and treats her work with professional care. And still, she was frustrated.

The trouble was, the folks in Insurance Verification weren’t the only ones collecting this information. “Sometimes I didn’t know how far to take it,” Marion explained, not knowing the point where an employee in another financial department might pick up the work. In the end, the investigatory work was sometimes even being done in triplicate. And still, sometimes, something could somehow get dropped, leaving no-one in the hospital holding a particular piece of important information.

FIXING THE PROBLEMS, FACE-TO-FACE

Marion was frustrated with what felt like a very uncertain and wasteful process, so she put an idea on her department's idea board to pull together all the different people involved. They would do a deep-dive into the process. This idea led the groups involved, including Billing and Care Coordination departments, to come together with for two intense, focused sessions. They mapped the workflow, who should do each piece of it, and how they would communicate about it. The result is a system that’s working much more smoothly. Multiple departments now dedicate a SharePoint site to manage each particular case. And the SHARE members who participated know that if glitches arise in their new process, they have a way to call together another meeting with other front-line employees to make corrections . . . although their new process is working well after the first few months, and they haven’t had to do so.

Marion says that she’s now more regularly satisfied with her work, knowing that she’s handling her part of the process from a clear starting point to a clear finish, and can better review a complete case for accuracy in the end.

Beyond that, it’s in describing the mapping events that Marion seems to me the most enthusiastic. Before the meetings, Marion had been speaking with many of the other participants over the phone, sometimes for years. And yet, this was the first time she’d ever seen many of them face-to-face, and understood the frustrations from their perspectives. “It was really good to have the time to do that,” she said. “We even shared some laughs.”

These personal interactions reminded Marion of the regular rounding that UMass Memorial employees once did. She enjoyed shadowing the work that others were doing, and learned by comparing experiences. She’s excited to see more of this kind of sharing again.

WHAT’S NEXT?

This process map is making big differences in the way the work gets done in Insurance Verification. And it’s only one of many conversations that together can transform our hospital. As we continue to build our network of information among members and across campuses, please let us know if you have an opportunity for improvement in your area, and stay tuned for more here on the SHARE blog.

SHARE Reps Learn to Use Lean to Improve Their Jobs

One morning in early March, over twenty SHARE leaders from all over UMMHC came together for a special, customized “White Belt” training. We even welcomed a few SHARE colleagues from UMMS who work in related jobs. Our hospital has adopted a "lean methodology," and our union wants to understand that, to know how we can make it work for us. So far, SHARE members’ experience of lean has been uneven: many SHARE members feel that their idea boards are helping make their jobs better, while some have not noticed any change.  Others wonder how to use these tools more effectively.

We began by talking about the purpose of process improvement.  A “good process” is one in which doing a great job is relatively straightforward; in a good process, it is difficult to make a mistake. A “bad process” is unnecessarily complicated, one in which it can be frighteningly easy to make a mistake, leading to high levels of stress and burnout (not to mention worse outcomes).  If you have to struggle against the system to make the right thing happen, leaving you exhausted and frustrated, you’ve got a process that needs improving.  SHARE reps’ stories of processes in need of improvement were hilarious and horrifying, sometimes at the same time.

When some organizations say “lean,” what they mean is “do more with less.” However, SHARE reps learned to substitute an idea of flow, since the point of process improvement is to keep things working smoothly, to remove barriers that get in the way, wasting SHARE members’ time.  Reps learned more about idea board best-practices; many left with ideas about how to improve their department’s board.

One highlight of the morning was a visit from Eric Dickson, CEO of UMMHC, who encouraged the SHARE Reps to "ask what is the problem we are trying to solve?". When a manager or supervisor proposes a process change that an employee is not sure will work, or doesn't understand, Dr. Dickson suggested, rather than just accepting it but being frustrated, or refusing to change, they should ask the manager to clarify the purpose of the change. Ask why. Work to agree about the definition of the problem. He pointed out that when we're on the same page about the problem to be solved, we're more likely to come to consensus about how to solve it.

At the end of the training, the SHARE reps wanted to know more about the flow and problem-solving tools involved in lean. The next step, a “yellow belt” training, is in the works!

All SHARE members can sign up for lean process improvement training (many hundreds have already attended).  You can sign up on Ournet.

Who Gets the Extra Time and the Overtime?

In some areas of the hospital, confusion about the distribution of extra time and overtime still exists. We want to make sure you know that, in our last contract negotiations, we worked with the hospital to make the policy simple and clear, and to prioritize the ability of SHARE members to get ET and OT.

If you would like help making sure that the policy is applied properly in the department, if you have questions about it, or if the SHARE members in your department would like to negotiate something different from the contract provisions, please contact the SHARE office. (Some departments have negotiated different arrangements, ones that are designed to better suit the specific needs of the staff and the work in those locations.)

Here’s the full contract language clarifying how any extra time and overtime should be doled out:

SHARE staff shall have priority over non-SHARE staff to be scheduled for extra time and overtime for SHARE position work. In the absence of guidelines negotiated in the department with SHARE staff, the following guidelines will be used: Regular part-time SHARE staff will have their schedule requests for additional time granted prior to the scheduling of per diem staff. Part-time workers and per diems may be scheduled for additional straight time hours prior to scheduling full-time employees for work at overtime pay.

Once a unit schedule is posted and additional hours need to be filled, they will be offered as follows:

1. Part-time SHARE staff on unit
2. Part-time SHARE staff from off unit
3. Per Diem staff for straight time
4. Full-time SHARE staff

This policy can be found in the context of all of the contract agreement language on page 11 of the online SHARE contract.

Reaching Contract Agreement: How Harvard Did It

Members of our sister union, HUCTW, have just ratified a new contract with Harvard University, with over 98% of the members voting to approve it. We are happy to congratulate the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers for voting-in this new contract agreement. 

SHARE and HUCTW have a lot in common. Together, the following unions form a coalition of unions known as the New England Organizing Project, or NEOP:

• the SHARE unions
• at UMass Medical School, and
• at UMass Memorial Hospital,
• the Union of Social Workers at Cambridge Health Alliance, and
• the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (or HUCTW)

Our shared vision includes a shared negotiation philosophy. In our negotiations, both HUCTW and SHARE begin by talking with management about what's important to union members. We listen carefully to what management says is important to them. Some of our goals overlap with those of management, and, of course, some do not. SHARE tries to build on our common ground, though we know we will disagree about other things. Before we start arguing what size piece of the pie we are going to get, we first want to figure out what we can do to grow that pie bigger. We look for ways to find solutions that work for both sides.

Union members got involved at Harvard to show their support for the union's ideas about healthcare. The NEOP unions agree: What happens outside the negotiating room, with union members showing their support, is just as important as what happens inside the negotiating room.

HUCTW and Harvard came to a contract agreement after long negotiations. As Harvard’s student newspaper, The Crimson, reports, Harvard’s most recent negotiations were long and frustrating. To focus discussions and hone interests, HUCTW and the University involved a team of professional mediators.

You can visit the HUCTW website to find a summary of the outcomes, as well as the complete language of the tentative agreement which has since been ratified by the members.

Every negotiation is different, from institution to institution, and with each successive contract. The next SHARE negotiations will evolve based on the interests of SHARE members and the needs of our hospital.  The strong success at Harvard inspires us to further develop our interest-based negotiation methods as we work to advance our wages and benefits, and create new and ambitious structures for improving our workplaces.

HUCTW member Noel voting in his first ratification vote at Harvard's Dumbarton Oaks location. Employees at this site, located in Washington D.C., recently voted to join Harvard's union.

SHARE PCAs, LPNs, and MAs – Do you want to go back to school?

SHARE, Worcester State University and UMass Memorial have put together a program to help you get started at college.

It's affordable, at a convenient time and place, and not scary! This program is designed for people who may not have been in a classroom for a long time. You earn 9 or more college credits, which you can transfer to other colleges if you want. You get coaching and support, and you get help making a plan for continuing your education at the end. Your classmates will be other SHARE members in the same boat.

Convenient time: You can do the classes during the day or in the evening. The first group will meet one evening per week (Wednesdays 4:30-7:30pm), starting in April 13th and going through October. A second group will go to classes during the day, starting September 2016 and going through April 2017.

Convenient locations – All classes located at University, Memorial or Hahnemann campuses.

Affordable – The first "getting started" class is free to you – UMass Memorial will pay for it! For the next three classes (3 credits each), you get tuition remission from UMass Memorial for much of the cost. UMass Memorial has agreed to pay that amount up front so that you don’t have to come up with the money ahead of time, like you usually have to -- which is awesome. (If you start but don’t finish a class, you will have to pay back the money.)

The best way to find out more or sign up that you are interested is to come talk to Amy from Worcester State at drop-in info sessions in the cafeterias:

·       Wed, 3/9 University: 11:30am - 1:30pm and 4:30pm - 6:30pm

·       Wed, 3/16 Memorial: 11:30am - 1:30pm and 4:30pm - 6:30pm

·       Wed, 3/23 University: 11:30am - 1:30pm and 4:30pm - 6:30pm

·       Wed, 3/30 Memorial: 11:30am - 1:30pm and 4:30pm - 6:30pm

To sign up: You can go to OurNet then My HR. Look for "Learning" and click on that. Look for the Direct Care Workers Pathways Program. You can also find it on the Worcester State University website.

If you can't find the information, you can call SHARE and we will get you a brochure -- leave a message at 508-929-4020 ext. 10.

Please note:  A state grant is paying for part of this program, and the state limited the program to people currently working as Patient Care Assistants, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Medical Assistants (or Medical Office Assistants). We wish we could make this opportunity available to all SHARE members – if this grant goes well, maybe we can do that in the future!

Tidbit Time: Week of February 8, 2016

Happy Heart Month! As in, happy Valentine’s. And, more importantly, Heart Health Awareness Month. Here’s our latest roundup of tidbits from our community and the worlds of academia, healthcare, and unions . . .

SUPPORTING FAMILIES and FRIENDS of WORCESTER PATIENTS

One former SHARE member, Nancy Whalen, the President of Healing Heart Hospitality House, has just let us know about an upcoming dinner with real heart. And you’re invited! “Our mission is to help families of patients traveling more than 30 miles to be with their loved ones hospitalized in the Worcester area by providing a suite of services that offers emotional and spiritual support and comfort,” Nancy writes. “Just recently a very generous person has offered to buy us a house. After 10 years of working towards this goal, we are excited beyond words. Pub 99 is sponsoring our fundraiser by donating 15% of food purchased on Tuesday, February 9th when anyone presents the voucher from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.”

You can print your own voucher by right-clicking the above image. Save it to your computer, and you can print it from there.

GOING RED for HEART HEALTH

Heart disease and stroke cause 1 in 3 deaths among women each year, killing approximately one woman every 80 seconds.  Fortunately, we can change that because 80 percent of cardiac and stroke events may be prevented with education and action. On Friday, February 5th, many SHARE members participated in National Wear Red Day, wearing red and working to raise research funds and awareness about women's heart health. 

Go Red Raffle in the University Cafeteria

The American Heart Association provides this guide to Well-Woman Visits so that you can schedule, prepare for, and understand the kinds of physician visits that will help you protect your own heart health, and encourage other women to do the same.

SOME GOOD NEWS for the MIDDLE CLASS

The number of union members in the US held steady from 2014 to 2015, according to the annual Department of Labor report on the subject.  Studies show that increased union membership strengthens the middle class.

HEARTS ARE AMAZING

Did you know that the blue whale has the largest heart, weighing in at 1,500 pounds? Or that your heart will beat about 100,000 times today? That will add up to over a million barrels of blood during an average lifetime.

NOT GETTING UPDATES? A TIP for KEEPING on TOP of SHARE NEWS

If you haven't already signed up to receive blog updates by email, you can do so by entering your address in the box in the top right corner of this screen. Also: for those of you who have signed up, but aren't getting updates, make sure to check your inbox--or your spam filter--for a verification email. When you sign up, you'll get an email from "Feedburner Email Subscriptions" asking you to click on the included link; this will activate your email subscription. If you have difficulties, please email kirk.davis@theshareunion.org.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and that things are off to a very good start for you this week. See you here next time . . .

SHARE 2016 Contract Negotiations Survey: The Results Are In

Thank you again to the 1651 SHARE members who completed the 2016 Contract Negotiations Survey. The survey focused on how to improve the day-to-day experience at work because that is where we want to focus in this year's contract negotiations. The survey results will be extremely helpful to the SHARE Negotiating Team.

Highlights: 

• The great majority of SHARE members find meaning in their work providing healthcare. 
• SHARE members value their benefits. 
• SHARE members say they get too little respect and appreciation for the important work that they do. 
• SHARE members are frustrated about their workload and staffing levels. 

You can see the full results online here. 

What are SHARE members MOST satisfied with?

SHARE Members Love their Benefits

Satisfaction with benefits was the highest ranked of the items that SHARE members reported their satisfaction with, with 85% saying they were either very satisfied or satisfied with benefits in general. This finding echoes SHARE members’ opinions as reported on the SHARE benefits survey from 2014, where 93% of SHARE members who took the survey said benefits are an important reason why they continue to work here. Over the years, SHARE members and the Negotiating Team have spent a lot of time and energy negotiating to keep and improve these benefits, so it's good to know that SHARE members appreciate them! 

Doing Something Meaningful in Providing Quality Healthcare

Doing something meaningful in providing quality healthcare was a close second in satisfaction, with 79% of SHARE members saying that they were satisfied on that question. People wrote lots and lots of comments about how much they love their patients, and their work with them.

What are SHARE members LEAST satisfied with?

Staffing

Only 45% said they were satisfied with their workload. On another question, 41% disagreed with the statement that staffing levels are adequate in their department, which was one of the highest negative responses to a question in the survey. Lots and lots of people wrote comments about how staffing challenges affect their experience at work, and patient care.

Only “informed about policies and administrative decisions” came in as less satisfying than workload, with 43% saying they were satisfied with this.

Respect at Work

SHARE members who took the survey were asked to rank a bunch of things in response to “What most important to improving your day-to-day experience at work?” The items you could choose from included: “respect and how my department leaders treat people; job security; feeling like a team in my department; systems, fixing how the work gets done; getting breaks and lunch and vacation time; and learning new things, career development.

Over two-thirds of SHARE members, 69% of those who took the survey, ranked “Respect and how my department leaders treat people” as number 1 or 2 out of that list, considerably more than any other item.

SHARE members report a wide range of opinions about their supervisors and managers: There are positive comments about how some managers seek out and listen to input from their staff, support their staff, and show respect for everyone and everyone’s work. There are also plenty of negative comments by SHARE members who say that their supervisor or manager does not listen to their input, or micromanages their work. When asked to agree or disagree with “I have an opportunity to participate in decisions made by my supervisor that affect my work environment,” SHARE members are evenly split. 34% say they agree with the statement, and 32% disagree with the statement. (The remaining 34% chose “neutral.”)

Job Security

Second in that ranking of priorities for improving day-to-day work was job security, with 53% ranking it number 1 or 2. And 30% agree that they worry about getting laid offs from their jobs.

Many SHARE Members Want to Learn Something New

73% of SHARE members say Yes or Maybe to wanting to learn new skills for a different job, plus 9% who say they are already in school to learn something new. Clearly there’s a hunger out there among SHARE members to keep learning and growing at UMass Memorial.

What's next?

These major themes are not a great surprise--these are issues that come up regularly in conversation with SHARE members. However, having numbers to attach to these stories gives us new insights, and documentation of what we hear day-to-day. We will continue to analyze the data, looking for patterns, and which groups of SHARE members feel most strongly on which issues. Stay tuned.

Annual UMass Martin Luther King Day Speaker: Liz Walker

Reverend Liz Walker with SHARE Treasurer Sandra Alafberg

Last Wednesday, the Reverend Liz Walker from the Roxbury Presbyterian Church spoke to our community about Martin Luther King and his example, especially how he lived a life of grace. 

SHARE Hospital Treasurer Sandra Alafberg, who works in downtown Worcester at UMass Memorial's Central Business Office, took time off from her work to hear Ms. Walker's talk, and left the event inspired and moved. 

"I loved it. Liz Walker is down-to-earth. Gracious . . . and funny. She's a humanitarian." Sandra said of the speaker. "She's from Arkansas. She learned about Dr. King when she was a girl. But she didn't come to talk about politics and movements. She talked about Martin Luther King being punched in the face by a man who was a stranger to him, and how he got up and walked away, how he showed grace. She talked about meeting Sudanese people who had absolutely nothing, and about their grace. She talked about how graciousness can change workplaces and societies." 

As a former news anchor at WBZ, Liz Walker is a familiar face to many in Massachusetts. Following in Dr. King’s tradition of service and advocacy, Liz Walker has responded to her own historical moment by co-founding the Jane Doe Safety Fund, a multi-million dollar advocacy group for survivors of domestic violence, and serving on a number of community boards and groups dedicated to causes including HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and at-risk youth. She currently divides her time between Massachusetts and the Sudan, where she does humanitarian work as the founder of "My Sister's Keeper," a group that focuses on economic and educational initiatives for Sudanese women and girls. You can learn more about Liz Walker’s work on her own website.

Tidbit Time: Week of January 25, 2016

Welcome back! These tidbits are starting to add up. Speaking of adding up . . .

MORE PARTICIPANTS, EASIER WORK

“Many hands make light work” has become a fairly well-known aphorism. The phrase can be attributed to the English playwright John Heywood, who wrote during the sixteenth century. The idea can also be found in many other languages around the world. A related Tanzanian proverb says, “Two ants do not fail to pull one grasshopper.”

ONE BILLION ACTS of PEACE

Here, Chade-Meng Tan explains how cooperation can change the world, in describing a project undertaken by Tibetan students in India that is doing just that.

JANUARY IS NATIONAL BLOOD-DONOR MONTH

The Blood Donor Center at UMass Memorial accepts the important gift of blood year-round, and January is a great time to resolve to give. Blood is required for a number of medical conditions, including, of course, transplants, cancers, and traumatic injuries. UMass Memorial uses about 31,000 blood products each year to meet the needs of patients. The Blood Donor Center is located on the University Campus, downstairs from the Emergency Department. Walk-ins are welcome for whole-blood donations, or to schedule an appointment, please call 508-421-1950. To find other locations to give, visit the Red Cross website.  

LEARN IT and KEEP IT

In his book Outliers, writer Malcolm Gladwell develops the idea that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Many critics and studies have worked to debunk this theory. Author and podcaster Tim Ferriss aspires to teach readers how to be world-class performers in a fraction of that time. But how long does it take to lose a skill? HopesandDreams recently spoke with several leading experts to find out the answer.

BUT HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE to GET to the CENTER of a TIDBIT?

A tidbit is, as Merrium-Webster tells us, “a choice or interesting bit (as of information),” or “a small piece of news or information.” Outside of the US and Canada, the preferred spelling is “titbit.” Obviously the word also often refers to a select little piece of food, and grammarist.com tells us that “the first syllable likely comes from the archaic colloquialism tid, meaning tender.”

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and that things are off to a very good start for you this week. See you here next time . . .

Tidbit Time: Week of January 18th, 2016

Good morning! And happy Martin Luther King Day! In 2016, we’re making some changes to our weekly blogging experiment, formerly “Five Tidbit Friday.” We’ll continue to collect an array of news items, but we’ll be posting them, in various quantities, at the beginning of the week. This week, we’ve got a nice batch, beginning with . . .

28th REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. TRIBUTE at UMass CELEBRATES SERVICE

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is," asserted Dr. Martin Luther King, "'What are you doing for others?'" On this MLK Day holiday, we remember Dr. King, and renew our thinking on this persistent and urgent question.

All members of the UMass community have been invited to this year's tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, where Rev. Liz Walker, pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church and the first black woman to co-anchor a newscast in Boston, will be delivering the keynote address on the subject of service.  RSVP or email DIO@umassmed.edu to register for the event, taking place on Wednesday, Jan. 20, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Faculty Conference Room on the University campus, with lunch available at 11:30 a.m.

An ENGLISH HOSPITAL SAVED by BEAUTY, CREATIVITY, and COLLECTIVE ACTION

Near the end of last year, and “across the pond,” as they say, hospital workers and community members responded with real inspiration to a political decision that would have shut down Lewisham and Greenwich Hospital in southeast London. Members of the National Health Service choir there recorded and released "A Bridge over You," a mashup of "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel, and Coldplay’s “Fix You.” The song became the centerpiece of a campaign to save the hospital.

As a result, the English came out in support of their healthcare workers. “A Bridge over You” reached number one on the UK singles chart at Christmas 2015, selling more than 127,000 copies. (Justin Bieber, whose song “Love Yourself” was expected to be number one on the charts during the spike in record sales at Christmas, even tweeted his support for the cause.)  

The song, the singers, and the video of these caregivers with their patients is quite an inspiration. Give it a listen?

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS about MARTIN LUTHER KING

The civil rights leader we celebrate today was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. In 1934, however, his father, a pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, traveled to Germany and became inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. As a result, King Sr. changed his own name as well as that of his 5-year-old son. And did you know that the young Martin Luther Jr. entered college at age fifteen?

BIG BROTHER and the WARMTH-DETECTORS

There’s more interesting work-related news from the UK this week.  Buzzfeed recently reported that, “The Daily Telegraph has installed devices to monitor whether journalists are at their desks.” These small boxes were mounted beneath the employees’ desks, and detected heat and motion. A follow-up in the Huffington Post stated that outcry about the devices led the company to remove them the same day they were installed. That article, entitled “Why Bosses Should Snoop on Employees Less,”  goes on to explain:

. . . increasing surveillance to boost productivity is much different from increasing surveillance to prevent theft, and it's unclear if it does much beyond stressing employees out. Workplace stress can cost companies a few thousand dollars per worker every year through a combination in absenteeism and disability claims, multiple studies have found -- and that doesn't even cover any declines in productivity. And it's pretty clear employees find surveillance stressful.

Although SHARE has never come across warmth-detectors, UMass Memorial does use some technology to keep track of productivity. We are keeping an eye on this trend. Let us know if something new comes up in your area.

And while we’re on the subject, we encourage SHARE members to be cautious. Here in the US, an employer is entitled to monitor any communication activity on a company-owned system. And they can legally discipline you for anything you send that is illegal or out-of-line with their policies.

HAS OBAMA BEEN READING the SHARE HOSPITAL CONTRACT?

In the most recent SHARE Hospital contract negotiations, we implemented new language, designed to allow laid-off SHARE members to retain their pay rate if they cannot find another SHARE job that pays as well, if they must instead take a job in a lower pay grade. Although the language hasn’t worked as an automatic fix, it has helped SHARE members retain their standard of living. According to Politico, it appears that President Obama has been developing a similar idea, “In Tuesday's State of the Union address President Barack Obama offered a policy fix for workers who lose their jobs and end up in worse-paying ones: wage insurance. If an American worker takes a job that pays less than the one that vanished, ‘there should be a system of wage insurance in place so that he can still pay his bills,’ the president said.”

To those of you who have the holiday off this year, have a wonderful and meaningful day. To those of you who will be clocked-in, thank you for the work you will be doing on this day in service of the missions of our hospital and university. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and that things are off to a very good start for you this week. See you here next time . . .

Take the Employee Engagement Survey by January 25th!

As many of you already know, UMass Memorial is rolling out another wave of Employee Engagement surveys to over 3,800 staff, including many SHARE members. If you are in an area that is being surveyed, SHARE encourages your participation. It shouldn't take much more than five minutes, you can do it on work time, and we are hopeful that the results will direct attention at improving what it feels like to come to work here every day.

Last year, a smaller number of departments were administered a similar survey; these departments will be re-surveyed to check on their progress.  In addition, several dozen other departments are being asked to participate.

Like the other Employee Engagement surveys administered since 2014, these will be handled by an outside agency called Avatar Solutions. The surveys will not be seen by anyone at UMass Memorial. Prior to this new approach, SHARE members sometimes encountered problems with how their information was handled--sometimes the results were reported in such a way that managers and supervisors could figure out respondents' identities. It appears that the measures involved now are working; SHARE has heard no complaints about confidentiality. Avatar Solutions will give UMass Memorial results for groups only, not individuals. Small groups will be combined to help protect anonymity. You have to enter your employee ID number to take the survey -- that's to make sure only employees take the survey, that each person only takes it once, and that your responses are grouped with your team’s responses.

If you are in a department taking part in the survey, you can expect that results will be shared with you in March, that measures will be put in place over the Spring and Summer with the goal of improving what it feels like to work here, and that your department will then be re-surveyed in October to measure whether improvements made between surveys have worked. SHARE leadership will also study these results to better understand ways that our union can improve our members' experience at work.

If you have any thoughts or questions about this survey, or SHARE's participation with it, email will.erickson@theshareunion.org.

The Flu Vaccine and Hospital Employees

You are probably hearing it in your department: UMass Memorial is urging employees to get their flu shot. Or, to fill out the form that says you’re not going to get the vaccine.

We’ve heard that the lines were long at the flu shot clinics this year, maybe because there weren’t as many as some years. The flu clinics are all done now, so you if want to get a flu shot, you have to go to your doctor, or to someplace like Walgreens or CVS.

Whether you get the shot or decline, you are supposed to turn in a form to Employee Health:

• the hospital flu vaccine form, which you can bring with you when you get your shot to have completed by your own regular care provider, drugstore clinic, etc., or,
• the declination form, if you choose not to be vaccinated. 

When flu season does hit here, patient care departments will require unvaccinated employees to wear a mask. Although there have been warnings of discipline surrounding the issue, SHARE has recommended that Human Resources handle individualized problems on a case-by-case basis. SHARE will work with hospital management to problem-solve these issues. To the best of our knowledge, this approach as generally worked out to everyone’s satisfaction in past flu seasons.

Some hospitals moving to require flu shots of all employees

Although some nearby hospitals, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, have worked to require the vaccine for eligible employees, it is not mandatory at UMass Memorial (though filling out one of the forms is required).

Johns Hopkins Medicine, a Maryland-based healthcare network requiring employee-vaccination, reports that “Each year, approximately 226,000 are hospitalized and 36,000 people die due to the flu.” On the University campus, researchers at UMass Medical School are studying ways to predict the evolution of the influenza virus to further develop prevention measures.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires all hospitals to report the vaccination rates among their employees. Additionally, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has established a minimum overall goal that 90% of healthcare workers be immunized.

Medicare makes public the vaccination rates of all hospitals in the US. The medicare.gov website currently reports that 83% of UMass Memorial employees have been vaccinated, slightly lower than the national average (84%) and state average (88%).

The Centers for Disease Control recommends vaccination for most individuals over six months of age, especially those who work in healthcare. This short video featuring UMass Memorial physician Dr. Fozia Qamar addresses some of the most common questions about the vaccine.

7796

7796 -- that's how many comments SHARE members wrote on the Contract Negotiations survey. The SHARE organizers are reading them all now, preparing the data for the SHARE Negotiating Team.

The data can answer many questions: We can look closely at each topic, like "What does all of SHARE think about career development?" and at different groups, like "What do clerical and administrative SHARE members think and how are they different or the same as what the techs or SHARE members in nursing jobs think?"

It's fabulous that so many SHARE members put so much thought into their survey responses. Analyzing that huge amount data is a huge task, and a very good problem to have. Thank you for all of your thoughtful responses.

Happy New Year!

1651 SHARE Members Completed the Negotiations Survey

Thank you to everyone who completed the SHARE Negotiations Survey. All total, we received 1651 surveys, which represents 64% of the SHARE membership.

We'll provide a breakdown of the numbers on this blog soon. We're now beginning to read all the responses, so that SHARE's Negotiating Team can use them in preparation for sitting down at the table with management in next year's round of negotiations.

Although this survey is now closed, we'll continue having many many conversations, collecting feedback and ideas, both leading up to and throughout the negotiations process. In the new year, SHARE will hold information meetings around the hospital system. We really appreciate the time you have taken to let us know your priorities, and your feedback about what could improve your day-to-day experience at UMass Memorial. If you would like to talk with a SHARE Representative about contract negotiations, please let us know!

Small Dues Increase in 2016

In 2016, SHARE union dues will increase by $.18 per week for most SHARE members. That's an increase of $9.36 for the whole year, or less than half a cent per hour if you work 40 hours. (For employees working 20 hrs/week, dues will increase $.13 per week.) Below are the old and new rates per week.

	Weekly Dues
	2015	2016	increase/week
regular	$8.39	$8.57	$.18
20-hour	$6.29	$6.42	$.13

Where do the dues go?

About 65% stays with SHARE at UMass Memorial and our sister unions at UMass Medical School, Harvard University, and the Cambridge Health Alliance. Together our four local unions form NEOP (New England Organizing Project). As NEOP, we pool our money and share expenses: staff, rent and utilities, printing and mailing, etc.

The other 35% of the money goes to our national union, AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) in Washington, DC. They spend that money on organizing new local unions (they funded us when we formed our union here), lobbying (like for the FMLA), research (like looking at contract trends across the country), etc.

Let us know if you would like more detailed information about SHARE’s expenses or AFSCME’s expenses. The SHARE office number is 508-929-4020.

How is the dues increase determined?

Our national union, AFSCME, calculates the annual increase based on the average raise for AFSCME members across the country. The new rate goes into effect each January.