Favorable Settlement Won for Kaiser Primary Care Advice RNs

August 2012

After a long, hard-fought battle, UNAC/UHCP reached a settlement agreement with Kaiser on two grievances concerning patient safety and workload for primary care advice RNs.

To improve message management, the agreement establishes joint labor-management committees charged with the mission of planning for coverage of scheduled time off for primary care RNs who triage patient phone and e-mail messages through Kaiser’s Health-Connect system. The committees, consisting of UNAC/UHCP representatives, department RNs, and Kaiser management, first will be formed at four Kaiser Medical Office Buildings (MOBs), where members actively communicated problems to the Union arising from the RNs’ role in triaging messages. The agreement includes a timeline for the committees to accomplish their work and an escalation process for issues not resolved at the local level.

The agreement also provides a mechanism for advice RNs at MOBs other than the four identified to use this committee process upon request and mutual agreement. The eleven-point agreement was the result of advice RNs’ feedback coupled with the commitment and dedication to this important patient care issue by UNAC/UHCP’s team, composed of Assistant Director of Collective Bargaining and Representation Suzanne Delaney, Staff Representatives Denise Duncan, Arthereane McLaughlin, and Kim Smith, UNAC/UHCP President Ken Deitz, and UNAC/UHCP Attorney Richa Amar.

The complete settlement agreement can be found here on our website.