Safe Staffing Campaign Prioritizes Patient Safety

On May 15, OFNHP launched a Safe Staffing button campaign to send a strong message to management: Quality patient care depends on adequate staffing; failure to staff correctly puts lives at risk.

We are asking that management follow through with the 2011 Issue Resolution that was decided in Partnership. Many items agreed to in that Issue Resolution have been stalled, including right-sizing the float pool and adhering to the staffing matrix that was developed in Partnership.

OFNHP has given KP management the required 72-hour notice of a button campaign, and as a union member you are entitled to wear this button without fear of retaliation. Please wear your button proudly and stand up in solidarity for safe staffing!

Union leadership is meeting with management at all levels to promote this campaign and push Kaiser to staff our hospital safely and correctly. Union activists are receiving the buttons today and will be distributing them.

If a manager asks you about your button, tell them that we are encouraging upper management to staff the hospital safely and appropriately. This is how we are expressing the fact that we don’t think that is currently happening.

If a patient asks you about your button, don’t give them any cause for alarm. Simply tell them that as health professionals, we are always promoting safe staffing to ensure the highest quality in patient care.

Please share this email, post the flyer in break rooms, and make sure everyone in your unit has a chance to see and understand it. We may need to call a Union meeting—if we do, we will announce it over blast email and with flyers in the units.

Thanks for all you do every day do give our patients the best possible care. If you have any
questions, please call Dawnette McCloud, RN Bargaining Unit President (503.327.4334), or
Internal Organizers Jeff Carr (503.880.4183) or John Scott (971.295.1477).

Kaiser's Periodontal Hygienists Targeted for Elimination
Registered Dental Hygienists Stand Strong to Preserve Perio Care, Protect Patients

Kaiser Permanente’s Vice President of Dental Services, Dr. Kenneth Wright, has announced his intent to eliminate Periodontal Hygienists within the Kaiser dental system. Periodontal Hygienists are the professionals who work in conjunction with Periodontists to provide treatment of advanced gum disease to some of our population’s most at-risk patients. Wright’s plan will without a doubt reduce labor costs and boost company profits. However, it will -- most importantly -- have a negative impact on the quality of care provided by our professional Hygienists.

OFNHP has attempted to negotiate with management and demonstrate that eliminating the Periodontal Hygienist classification is a superficial cost solution which will negatively impact patient care and will actually cost more money in the long-term. We are taking this anti-patient, anti-employee “cost savings” plan to the highest level of arbitration. It is our position that Wright’s heavy-handed, anti-patient-care decision violates the current legal and binding contract between Kaiser and the Union. It also violates the patient’s trust that Kaiser Permanente puts high-quality patient care over profits.

This morning, Wednesday, April 24, OFNHP union members demonstrated in front of Kaiser headquarters, 500 NE Multnomah, Portland, from 7:30-8:30am. We will be there again this afternoon from 3:30-4:30pm. Additional demonstrations will occur at various dental clinics throughout the region on a random and unannounced basis.

WHY Preserve Kaiser’s Periodontal Hygienists?

?    The periodontal program employs periodontal hygienists who were hired to specifically care for a population of patients with advanced gum disease.

?    Kaiser Permanente is planning to eliminate this specialized classification and require all General Hygienists to provide this service. They will no longer receive the additional compensation they now earn for performing these advanced duties.

?    Similar to other health professionals, General Hygienists have the option of specializing in certain areas, pursuing training to develop specialized skill sets, and being compensated according to that increased value to the healthcare provider and the patient who receives these services. The elimination of the Periodontal Hygienist indicates that Kaiser has placed profit over patient care.

We, the Registered Dental Hygienists of Kaiser Permanente, believe that Kaiser’s elimination of Periodontal Hygienists will:
    - Erode the close communication needed between the periodontist and Periodontal Hygienist.
    - Diminish this skill set in those who have developed it.
    - Undermine continuity and quality care for our most at-risk patients.
    - Eliminate the patient’s ability to schedule as needed for the frequency of care required and planned.

These factors will significantly and negatively affect the oral outcome and total overall health for our patients.


Preserve Kaiser’s Periodontal Hygienists!