KP-CNA Bargaining Update #8

Today, Kaiser Permanente and the California Nurses Association (CNA) met for the eighth day of contract negotiations.

What happened

  • KP experts from regional and national offices delivered a presentation about Epic Acuity, a hospital patient acuity/nursing workflow system that integrates directly with Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®.
  • We continued discussion around which expired side letters and appendices could be retired from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
  • The union presented proposals regarding outpatient nurse staffing and Patient Care Coordinators.

For the record

We shared detailed information about Epic Acuity. Epic Acuity addresses many of the issues that nurses have raised about our current patient acuity system, GRASP®, which is based on studies of nursing work flows conducted nearly 50 years ago. We believe that our nurses would benefit from a more up-to-date and efficient system, one that directly reflects the care provided and allows nurses to spend more time at the bedside. Epic Acuity uses clinical information from KP HealthConnect, eliminating the need for nurses to double chart. The system is comprehensive and gives full credit for caregiver activities.

We continue to maintain that Patient Care Coordinators’ unique interests would be best addressed in a separate bargaining unit. It was necessary for us to restate KP’s position that we will not bargain about Patient Care Coordinators in the current contract negotiations as we legally contest the NLRB’s decision to include them in the larger CNA unit. The offer remains open for CNA to let us know that they recognize Patient Care Coordinators as a separate bargaining unit at any time, and we will begin negotiations.

What comes next

Bargaining is scheduled to continue Tuesday, Aug. 15. We will continue to keep you informed.

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