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Bringing the Workforce into Health Care Reform. Cornell’s International Health Care Conference Thomas A. Kochan Massachusetts Institute of Technology May 12, 2010. What we Know.
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Bringing the Workforce into Health Care Reform Cornell’s International Health Care Conference Thomas A. Kochan Massachusetts Institute of Technology May 12, 2010
What we Know “Financial and technological investments don’t pay off unless matched with equivalent investments in workforce development and workplace innovation” • Lessons learned from: • Autos and manufacturing technologies • IT investments • Our work in health care at KP and elsewhere!
Components of a Workforce/Workplace Health Care Policy • Teamwork, engagement, coordination • Labor Management Partnerships • Labor policies that promote cooperation and non-adversarial relationships in: • Organizing • Bargaining • Day-to-day work processes and relationships • Systems to hold all parties accountable
Teamwork & Coordination • Clear evidence: Engagement, teamwork and coordination reduce medical errors, improve patient care, and get payoffs from EMR technologies • The KP Approach: • Unit Based Teams • Task forces to solve specific problems • Major investments in workforce training • Union and worker engagement in design and implementation of EMR technologies
Labor Management Partnerships • Clear evidence: Teamwork, engagement and coordination cannot be sustained in an adversarial, traditional union management relationship • NUMMI and Saturn…..now GM, Ford… • Continental, Southwest, Saturn, • Steel, communications, manufacturing ,..
Productivity Effects:Traditional & Transformed Relations in Union & Non Union Settings Source: Black & Lynch, 1997
The KP Approach: 10 years of the LMP • Interest based approach to bargaining • Leading the “Case for Change” on the front lines • Agreed upon rules governing union organizing • Negotiated agreement to promote EMR technologies
Labor Policy • Clear Evidence: Current labor law is badly broken and organizing battles ensure adversarial relations regardless of whether a union wins or loses • Needed: Non adversarial organizing • National labor law reforms will help but also need.. • Proactive health care labor policy to: • Prohibit use of public funds for union avoidance • Support partnerships
Holding Everyone Accountable • Make funding for technology, training, and reimbursements conditional on: • Organizing Agreements • Commitments to support teamwork and partnerships • Programs and progress in place to implement commitment to partnership • Hold labor and management jointly accountable!
The Bottom Line • Embed these principles in implementing health care reform • In the regulations written to enforce legislation • In proactive efforts to promote partnerships