Kaweah Health Employee Huddle

April 23, 2021

Please Note: When time does not allow us to answer every submitted question, we answer questions at the next week KD Huddle. Submit a question now for next week by e-mailing dvolosin@kaweahhealth.org.

EMPLOYEE HUDDLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR 4/23/2021

Do we have any estimated date when Lifestyles daycare will re-open since other gyms in the city have opened their daycares like In-Shape?

Patrick Tazio, the Director of TLC is anticipating a reopening of the daycare section on June 7^th after we close down the day camp on June 4^th.

A while back Kaweah was thinking of adding the merit increases to Per Diem employees so it wouldn't create stagnant wages. Is this something that has been figured in to the new budget?

For many licensed clinical positions, it’s common to provide a flat rate that is adjusted when the range moves with other market adjustments. Merit increases don’t apply. For non-licensed clinical positions, we set rates of pay within the range and employees receive merit increases. Both of these practices are consistent with the market and other hospitals.

Staff have asked if they are able to have callback pay instead of the bonus shift?

Callback applies in two situations: The majority of callback is for urgent coverage on nights and weekends for units like surgical services and the cath lab. If a nurse, for example, on a unit is placed on standby for their regular shift and gets called it, they are paid their regular rate. For an additional shift, the nurse would not be on standby and callback would not apply.

Did we hire more staff to take care of the new expansion? if so, how many new nurses, techs, doctors?

The ED expansion of beds creates space for us to grow our services but we do not hire people based on number of beds in any of our areas. You will find, we hire based on number of people served and projected number of people served. If you go to any patient care area, inpatient or outpatient, the team member numbers are based on the average daily census. We project from the past and anticipate the future when creating those numbers. Right now in the ED, we are understaffed and that is where we feel the deficits in care because we have to fill open positions. We have 7 open nursing positions and 4 open tech positions. This is a shortage of 5 team members per day throughout the week. We will continue to watch volume trends and even if we budget for a lower volume and see continued heightened trends, we will hire more staff.

Update on Visitors Policy

The visitor policy is still in place for one unique visitor each day, but this person can change from day to day. The visiting hours are 10am-9pm with the ICUs restricting from 5pm-7pm. The ED is one visitor back in the patient room, no visitors in the lobby. We will adjust this when we move into the expanded ED space.

Update on Surgical mask use vs. N95 use

The beginning of this week we made the change from N95s for all patient care areas to surgical masks. We are now using surgical masks as our prevention in patient care other than where we might have to take care of patients with COVID or in our special precautions procedures.

Will you tell us more about changes made to senior rounding throughout the organization?

Our senior leadership team, your VPs/Executives, are doing monthly rounds throughout the organization. Each executive has an area where they will round and connect with the teams for 3 months. You should see them on days and nights. You will have the same executive rounding in your area for three months and then a new executive will be coming to get to know you and your teams. The executive is spending about 4-5 hours a month rounding on their areas, talking with the teams and really want to hear more about what is happening in your areas as well as share what is happening throughout the organization. If you see an executive in your area, stop them and spend some time talking. We are here to create an organization that represents you.

When the name changes what will the Mental Health Hospital be called?

Kaweah Health Mental Health Hospital.

When do we officially change names?

May 1, 2021

Are the different campuses in charge of changing signage?

No. The design and appearance of every facility sign throughout our entire organization has been created and approved by the individual leaders of each service/facility and signed off by our Vice Presidents and me. The signs are currently being manufactured and will be put in place over the coming weeks. All of this work is being coordinated and/or performed by our amazingly-talented Marketing and Facilities Departments.

Update on ED opening

Zone 5, the new 24-bed addition to our Emergency Department is scheduled to be surveyed by the California Department of Public Health next Thursday, April 29^th at 9:00 A.M. Zone 5 will officially open for patient care beginning Tuesday, May 4^th.

Recap of Memorial Fence Dedication

On Wednesday morning, we unveiled a new Celebration of Life Memorial Fence, located along the pathway that separates the Support Services Building from the Kaweah Kids Center, where we honor and memorialize the lives and service of those Kaweah Health Family members who passed away while in active service to Kaweah Health. The idea of this Memorial has been under consideration for a couple of years now and was brought to fruition by our Kaweah Care Employee Connections Committee. The black wrought iron fence is now adorned by a descriptive plaque along with the names, position and dates of service of 16 Kaweah Health Family members who have passed away since the beginning of 2018 (about as far back as we wanted to go). Seven families of fallen Kaweah Health Family members attended the event, along with dozens of our staff and our Board members Dave, Mike and Garth. While we hope the Memorial Fence will remain small and sparsely populated, it will include employees and members of the Kaweah Health Medical Staff. A video of the event is posted on Kaweah Health’s Facebook page.

Special Rebranding edition of the Employee Huddle on Wednesday, April 28^th, at 12:00.