The Vascular Lab Unit Based Team
The Vascular Lab—a department that spans five different sites in our hospital system—has been among the pioneering first wave of Unit Based Teams (“UBTs”) at UMass Memorial. Presenters from the department Denise Kush and Kim Latrobe recently described the work of this Team to members of the SHARE-UMass Memorial LMPC. Denise and Kim described what they do for patients and the challenges and successes they’ve experienced during their first couple of years as a Team.
To start, they said, their UBT looked to their Caregiver Survey results. They determined that the department could really benefit from improvements in workload distribution, education, and communication. Denise and Kim say that the consensus-building techniques they use in their UBT have made difficult challenges much more manageable. One particular project that the manager had had on her to-do list for five years got adopted by the UBT, and now the department has done it together.
Now, the Vascular Lab’s work is gaining recognition: their UBT has also been highlighted by the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, in an article that was named one of its top posts of 2019. The Vascular Lab UBT is now working to define its next projects to improve respect, safety, and engagement within the department.
Scroll on to see sample slides from their presentation and learn more about their projects.
The UMass Memorial Vascular Lab is nationally recognized in the field for providing quality care. The images they take can prompt action for life-saving care, including anti-coagulant drugs and even immediate surgery. It launched its Unit Based Team in 2017.
A Unit Based Team is typically focused in a single department. The UBT is co-led by a SHARE member and an area manager. The team is supported and sponsored by a SHARE organizer and a senior hospital leader, and given strategic tools and guidance by a UBT coach. The team will also include other SHARE members, and may also involve other employees in the area, depending on the department. The goal is to make sure that all of the relevant perspectives are represented. Together, this group coordinates with the broader department to develop projects to fix the kinds of problems that have really been getting in the way.
Denise Kush (management co-lead and the department’s chief technologist) and Kim Latrobe (SHARE co-lead and Registered Vascular Technologist)
“Unit Based Teams and Idea Boards stand alone. But they also complement each other, especially since UBTs can tackle larger issues. ”
The Venue: Labor Management Partnership Council (LMPC)
Our hospital and our union meet monthly to plan together about shared goals and concerns in a group called the Labor Management Partnership Council, or LMPC (see page 6 of the SHARE Contract Agreement for a description of this group).
The LMPC also reviews the partnership work we’re doing at the front lines, and celebrates good things that SHARE members have done. During its February meeting, the LMPC also watched the brief video profile of SHARE Member Jackie Rodriguez that appears on the AFSCME International website in honor of the “Never Quit” award that she received.
The Caregiver Survey numbers are trending in the right direction for the Vascular Lab as their UBT matures. Members there say the UBT has changed their experience at work. One recently commented that her goal used to be to get patients taken care of and get through her workweek . . . but that now she continually gets caught up thinking about how to improve and optimize the work that the department is doing.
Figuring out how to begin and measure their undertakings initially challenged the Vascular Lab UBT. But they have since developed projects that have helped to evenly distribute the work among staff and improve communication, among other things. The Technologists are continually learning to stay in the front of their field.