Kaiser Permanente and the Alliance of Health Care Unions

Humans of Partnership: Victor Shen

Victor W. Shen, assistant director and UBT management co-lead, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Los Angeles Medical Center)

Our UBT is very focused on teamwork. When we meet, our badges are off. It’s no longer ‘manager,’ ‘therapist,’ ‘assistant’ or ‘aide.’ Not having the traditional hierarchy has made a big difference. For example, our team had injuries related to patient positioning. We did a project called ‘Gimme a Boost.’ In doing a process map, we learned that one major gap was everyone's understanding of counting and moving on ‘three’ before boosting the patient together. Since standardizing our counting process, our staff has had no injuries as a result of boosting patients up in bed.

Victor Shen, assistant director, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, management co-lead (Southern California)