UMass Memorial Health and SHARE leaders recently celebrated an impressive milestone reached by two Unit-Based Teams, or UBTs. A UBT is a frontline-led, department-level improvement system that enables caregivers to work on the process problems that make it hardest for them to feel proud of the care they deliver.
This week, Dr. Eric Dickson and other hospital leaders visited the Vascular Surgery Office and Diabetes/Endocrinology departments to celebrate the teams becoming the first UBTs to reach Level 5 status on the UBT Path to Performance.
While over 75 UBTs have been launched over the last several years across the Medical Center, Medical Group, Revenue Cycle, and Marlborough Hospital, these are the first to have reached this top level of performance.
In order to progress through the Path to Performance, a team, made up of a voluntary group of employees consisting of managers, union organizers, and frontline staff, must demonstrate competence in various ways, with a focus on designing and completing improvement projects in their own department. UBT projects often tackle things such as communication or workflow. The ultimate goal of the UBT is to make their departments better places to work — more enjoyable, smoother running, and easier places to give the high-level patient care that they want to provide.
In addition to delivering to each team a traditional SHARE-UMass Partnership Office award — a balloon shaped like a number “5” — Dr. Dickson heard from caregivers about which UBT projects have meant the most to them, what they are working on now, and how having a UBT has changed how they feel about coming to work.
Congratulations Vascular Surgery Office and Diabetes/Endocrinology UBTs for leading the pack!
Click here to learn more about UBTs, and to find out more about how to launch one in your department reach out to Will.Erickson@umassmemorial.org.