Working as an outpatient pharmacist in the early weeks of the pandemic, El-Amin said severe levels of understaffing negatively affected her mental health each day. That's when the place where she built her career no longer seemed to have her back. "Kaiser really grew with me for all of those years," the 39-year-old El-Amin said, adding that she can't imagine her life without the organization.īut she started to notice changes when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. area, from technician and outpatient pharmacist to acute care clinic pharmacist. El-Amin has held several positions in the Washington D.C. In her 21 years at Kaiser, she has moved up through the ranks. "Kaiser is already letting down our patients"įor Brooke El-Amin, the staffing shortage has taken a huge toll. "We are committed to addressing every area of staffing that is still challenging," Kaiser said in a statement. Kaiser also said it's working to reach an agreement with the unions that "protects and improves all these great advantages of working at Kaiser," citing progress in national bargaining over the past week and steps the organization has already taken to streamline the hiring process. The organization is asking employees to reject calls to walk off the job to prevent harm to patients, while stressing that it has plans in place to keep providing care in the event of a strike. Kaiser said it offers better pay and benefits than other health care employers. Shots - Health News What happens to health programs if the federal government shuts down? Kaiser said in a statement that it's close to reaching its goal of hiring 10,000 more people by the end of 2023 to fill vacant roles. The unions also say Kaiser has so far refused to renew subcontracting and outsourcing protections. Kaiser has offered raises ranging from 12% to 14%, according to the unions. It would also attract newer workers - all of which would help alleviate the staffing shortage. With better pay and work conditions, they say, more people would be incentivized to stay at Kaiser. The coalition is pushing for a pay raise of nearly 25% for all of its members along with better benefits, such as more investment in training for current employees and medical coverage for retirees. "So our goal with the strike is to hopefully change that." Better pay and benefits will help with retention, unions say "(Patients are) really already being affected," Reid said. But now, patients often have to wait two months, she said.Īnd the number of optometrists across Kaiser's service regions, Reid said, has dropped from about 70 to fewer than 50. Pamela Reid, an optometrist at Kaiser's Marlow Heights Medical Center in Maryland, said wait times for an appointment in her department ranged from five to 10 business days before the COVID-19 pandemic. About 11% of union positions were vacant in April of this year, according to Kaiser data obtained by the unions. Workers say this shortage in staff has deteriorated the quality of care for Kaiser's patients and harmed employees' well-being. The NPR Politics Podcast The Summer Of Labor Appointment wait times for patients have skyrocketed But she said Kaiser executives "kicked the can down the road," at the same time that the pandemic hit the U.S. Lucas said understaffing was a concern even before the COVID-19 pandemic. "We went from really having a problem on the horizon to having a crisis here and now," Lucas said. An exodus of health care workers due to COVID-19 – coupled with a surge in demand as patients return for routine care they had delayed because of the pandemic – has heightened the severity of the staffing shortage, according to Caroline Lucas, executive director of the union coalition. Staffing crisisīut the Kaiser strike threat is primarily driven by a colossal understaffing crisis. Like striking workers in many other industries, they, too are demanding higher pay and better benefits. If workers walk off the job, it would be what their unions describe as the biggest healthcare strike in U.S. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions says it's still far apart from Kaiser on key issues such as pay raises and job protections. A coalition of 12 unions has been in talks with the organization since April to iron out a new contract for its members. Kaiser serves nearly 13 million patients across the U.S.
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