A new initiative was spearheaded by Oshei Children’s Hospital (OCH) in Buffalo, New York and 1199SEIU, and supported by our new Upstate New York Labor Management Project (LMP) presence. A new LMP case study, the third in our “The Power of Partnership” series, offers an inside look at this collaboration, which led to increased provider responsiveness, communication, and a cleaner hospital environment. OCH is the largest healthcare provider in Western New York and a part of the Kaleida Health healthcare system.
“When the idea of a labor-management project came up, the approach was perfect for us and there was no other facility in the area that we thought would be a better partner than the Oshei Children’s Hospital,” said 1199SEIU Vice President Jim Scordato. He was referring to an opportunity provided by the Healthcare Career Advancement Program, which allowed Union and Kaleida Health staff to learn from other longstanding labor-management partnerships on the West Coast.
Scordato and OCH President Allegra Jaros enlisted the help of the LMP to help put together a project and identify and test best practices to enhance the patient experience through labor-management collaboration. The case study explains how hospital’s Answering the C.A.L.L. initiative was developed and implemented, including how labor and management partnered in multidisciplinary rounding, employing a “no pass zone,” and consistently using communication boards.
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