Blog Digest: Opposing MGB Expansion, Spotlight on the Single Billing Office, and More!
YOU Can Help Oppose MGB Expansion
The SHARE Executive Boards at the Med Center and Marlborough Hospital have voted to join the Coalition to Protect Community Care. SHARE leaders are already on the record as opposing the expansion of Mass General Brigham (MGB), because the expansion threatens SHARE Union jobs, the financial stability of our hospitals, and care for our most vulnerable patients. (Read more about how MGB’s expansion could impact SHARE jobs and Central Massachusetts.)
We encourage you to make your voice heard. The Department of Public Health has reopened the public comment period from now until Wednesday, June 2nd at 5PM ET. It’s really quick – just takes a minute!
Using the coalition’s online platform, just enter your name and address, then
You can add your thoughts to the statement or just hit “submit” to send the basic message of why we oppose the Mass General Brigham expansion.
Share to any and all who might be willing to help with this! (To make it easy, you can use the email template found here.)
Laurie Abernathy, SHARE UBT Union Co-Lead. Before the UBT, she says process improvement could often seem like “putting a band-aid on top of a band-aid.” (photo credit: Candace Tauson)
Spotlight on the Unit-Based Teams: The Single Billing Office
SHARE and UMass Memorial continue to grow our Unit Based Teams program. We’ve taken the opportunity to spotlight the work of the UBT in the Single Billing Office (SBO). Shortly after launching their team, the pandemic hit, and SHARE members there were suddenly thrust into a work-from-home situation. But the SBO used their UBT to keep making strides, improve service to patients, and make their own work more satisfying. To hear their story, check out this this interview with UBT Co-Leads Laurie Abernathy and Michelle Locke.
Nominations Are Now Open for SHARE Executive Board and Representative Positions
Don’t forget! You can nominate a co-worker or yourself through June 9. See full details here.
We hope you have a safe and meaningful Memorial Day Weekend. As always, thank you for everything you do to keep our union and our hospital running strong.
*YOU* Can Help Oppose MGB Expansion
SHARE opposes the expansion of Mass General Brigham (MGB) because the expansion threatens Union jobs, the financial stability of our hospitals, and care for our most vulnerable patients. (Read more about how MGB’s expansion could impact SHARE jobs and Central Massachusetts.)
SHARE Encourages You TO VOICE YOUR CONCERNS
The Department of Public Health has reopened the public comment period from now until Wednesday, June 2nd at 5PM ET. It’s really quick – just takes a minute!
To make providing a public testimony for community members that have not yet testified easier, the Coalition to Protect Community Care has launched an online platform that allows you to fill out your personal information and send a testimony for public record directly to the Department of Public Health’s Determination of Need program. In other words:
Just enter your name and address, then
You can add your thoughts to the statement or just hit “submit” to send the basic message of why we oppose the Mass General Brigham expansion.
Share to any and all who might be willing to help with this! (We’ve included a sample email template below)
Sample Email Template
Hi X,
SHARE is proud to support the Coalition to Protect Community Care, which is opposing Mass General Brigham’s proposal to build outpatient facilities in Woburn, Westborough and Westwood. We have serious concerns that, if approved, Mass General Brigham’s outpatient centers will threaten the financial viability of critical local healthcare providers; exacerbate healthcare inequities; increase the cost of care; and jeopardize essential local jobs.
The Department of Public Health is now accepting public comments on Mass General Brigham’s proposal until Wednesday, June 2 at 5PM. If you would like to make your concerns known, please feel empowered to submit a pre-written comment via this online petition platform.
If you have colleagues, family members and friends who are also concerned about Mass General Brigham’s plans, we encourage you to share this online platform with them so that they too can make their voices heard.
Thank you in advance for your advocacy.
Best,
X
UBT Spotlight: Single Billing Office
Laurie Abernathy, SHARE UBT Union Co-Lead. Before the UBT, she says process improvement could often seem like “putting a band-aid on top of a band-aid.” (photo credit: Candace Tauson)
A NOTE FROM THE SHARE CO-SPONSOR
Before establishing a Unit Based Team, the SBO had already been consistently improving. Still, morale among the staff was rocky. Just before we launched the UBT, I attended a staff meeting like none I’d ever seen, one that brought the whole department together . . . except that management stayed out of the meeting so that the staff felt more comfortable to speak freely.
The conversation was led by staff member and SHARE Rep Laurie Abernathy. The staff speculated about how to deal with their many frustrations: turnover had been high, management had been difficult to contact when angry patients needed to be escalated. Their idea-board ideas were stuck in the parking lot, and they found themselves often unable to communicate about essential things. The staff felt adrift and underpowered, detached from other departments in the hospital, and even from their own management structure. But they clearly wanted to do the best job they could, taking care of patients and one another.
At the request of the staff, Laurie brought the concerns and ideas back to me as their SHARE organizer, and to SBO Director, Joy Cournoyer. Joy listened thoughtfully, intent to make improvements. And now that we’re UBT Co-Sponsors together, I’ve gotten to see firsthand how the UBT structure has provided new ways for leadership to support and champion this Team.
Together with Management Co-Leads Michelle Locke and Rebecca Boutilette, Laurie and a half-dozen other SHARE members have been meeting as a team every two weeks. As a result of their UBT, I’ve seen the whole department better enabled to bring their expertise and compassion more consistently to every interaction they have with patients. They have a great story to tell . . .
--Kirk Davis, SHARE Staff Organizer and UBT Co-Sponsor
Michelle Locke & Laurie Abernathy,
SBO UBT Co-Leads
Interviewed by Rafael Rojas
The Unit Based Team: First Impressions
Laurie: I first heard of the UBT when I became a union rep. It was about two years ago when I first heard of the idea, and I immediately thought,” Oh my goodness, my department needs this so bad, we could really flourish from working through this system. We’ve always had ideas, and we’ve usually been able to figure out what the problem is, but we would have a hard time with figuring out how to solve them. We would resort to putting a band-aid on top of a band-aid until some change down the line would just blow all of our band-aids off and we would be forced to start from square one.”
Michelle: So much progress has been made in our department as a result of the UBT. I can honestly say that in my short amount of time here, that I’m unsure that we would have even been put a lot of our goals on the list of what we needed to improve. The UBT has forced us in a good way to hold our feet to the fire. We are making a commitment to the UBT, but also to everyone in the department and it’s a great thing to feel responsible for. We are making changes that will help in the future past the pandemic as well, which is just really exciting.
The First Challenge: Updating the Process Documents
Michelle: When this UBT formed we had a tough time deciding exactly what metrics we would follow to track our progress and improvements, but these have proven to be helpful, and we are still constantly thinking of different and better ways to measure these changes.
Michelle: Our primary, but also biggest obstacle and challenge that the UBT has taken on has been updating our process documents. Our process documents are not only outdated, but they lack information of many processes that happened in our department. Those documents that we did have were scattered throughout a SharePoint site that were not easily accessible. If a representative was looking for information while they were on the phone with the patient, they would be stumbling on the phone just to get them that information. In addition to that, being in the office brought the advantage of being able to lean over and get help from a coworker or from one of the two team-leads that were present on the floor. This is something that simply could not translate to working from home, and it became urgent for us to figure out how to organize this information for the representatives and a patient. We wanted to be sure that we could not only get the patients the information in a timely manner, but to get them the entirety of their information accurately.
In order for us to take on all of these process documents, we as a team have to figure what is the most important document. Where do you start when you take a look and see a hundred or more process documents that need to be updated, where do you even begin? We took a lot of time in meetings and in person, but primarily since we’ve been home, it’s taken a lot of time as a group to get together and brainstorm what is going to be the most beneficial for who’s on the telephone – so let’s first put together our list of process documents, then let’s prioritize them in order of which will have the biggest impact. Then comes the challenge of deciding who will write these process documents? It’s great that we know we need all of these documents, but who has the skills and who has the time to write all of these documents? Working on this from home has been extremely challenging, but we are making significant progress on this end.
UP-ENDED BY THE PANDEMIC
Michelle: Our UBT has been in existence for a little over a year now. When it started, we were a department that was working in an office together, so the dynamics were very different from what they are today. At first, we would meet in a group environment, but after March of last year it shifted to working from home and meeting remotely. This change had a big impact on a lot of people’s lives and really shook up the department. It is not that the UBT was pushed to the side, but we simply had a lot on our plate and certain changes did not allow for the UBT to receive the amount of time that it deserves. The priority was first to make sure that everyone was safe and settled at home as the setting of our work shifted. It was only for a few months that the UBT received less time than we had hoped, but we got right back to it as soon as we were acclimated to working from home.
“Our department went through a significant change in the way that we measured productivity. In a call center environment, you typically take a look at the amount of telephone calls that a representative is taking. Once the shift to working from home happened, the UBT presented the opportunity to change this measuring system that was among other broken parts of the system. The UBT served as a catalyst to implement and make a lot of the changes that we were in the process of doing in a manner that was more manageable for the reps. Instead of management or leadership initiating some of the conversations around issues and concerns, it is the UBT as a whole that presents these topics at our meetings. To have a system of communication that involves all parts of the department makes it feel like a very welcoming space to present some of the issues and concerns that the department has,” says SBO UBT Management Co-Lead Michelle Locke (image from presentation to LMPC)
Laurie: Our department has a large age range, so it can take those who are not as used to relying on so much technology to get their work done forever to simplify the processes and transitions to working from home. For months we just could not get the web-ex meetings to work properly for all of our members and it forced us to slow down and make sure that everyone could acclimate to the change. When we were working on this project of organizing the documents, we also wanted to be sure that we could format and sort them in a way that is accessible to all of our employees. We’re not quite there yet, but that will be one of the challenges that we overcome. People learn differently and the key will be to figure out the best way to train these process documents to a group of people that all have various ways of learning and understanding this information.
Laurie: Our department as a whole had the capacity to figure out where the problem is, what is causing it, and even thinking of how to fix it. The biggest problem was always trying to implement it. We could only take a project so far, but then we’d have to stop and wait for someone to finish.
THE UNIT BASED TEAM: AN IMPROVED IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM
Laurie and Michelle recently presented about their UBT’s challenges and successes to the Labor Management Partnership Council. Our hospital and our union meet monthly to plan together about shared goals and concerns in a group called the Labor Management Partnership Council, or LMPC (see page 6 of the SHARE Contract Agreement for a description of this group).
Laurie: As an alternative to the old improvement system (in which someone would get fed up with something and send an email to management, who would then send an email over to someone else and create a chain that was difficult to track and really emphasize), we now have a chart that organizes and prioritizes our ideas and problems. When something is posted on it, it goes out to everyone, and then everyone has the ability to add their input on how important it is to them or not.
Michelle: Altogether, we have identified and organized 103 different processes prioritized by where it will benefit the representative and where it will benefit the patient. So far, we have completed 20 of them since January.
Laurie: Everyone’s experience in the office is different, but this system really allows us to validate these issues and have them be addressed when they need to be. This has really helped us in our project to update our process documents and the representatives all give good input on where the information is lacking. There is really a lot involved in it when you keep in mind the training that comes with accessing the new documents once they are put together, we are making a lot of progress where a lot of work has to be done, but we are not cutting any corners. As soon as the training is done, we upload the document to a SharePoint site to have it be electronically accessible to everyone. Sometimes, we will even identify to some problems with the documents or programs, and we will go back into the steps to fix it.
WE CARE FOR PATIENTS . . . AND OUR CO-WORKERS
Michelle: We are a very food-driven department with some amazing cooks and menus. We are all here to work, we are not independently wealthy with mortgages to pay and families to provide for. We have to work, and this comes with high goals and expectations. It is important to find some point in the day that is full of humor, and this is something that we tried to implement into the UBT. When you ask yourself if you have goals that you have to make, also ask yourself if you can do it in a fun and enjoyable way. With the inception of the UBT, we could not imagine a better way than to introduce it in a way other than a potluck. It was still a professional and formal way, but it was something that everyone could bring something that they enjoyed. If this team was going to be successful, it had to be introduced that made everyone had faith in us for getting things done and improving what they needed. It also opened the door for a system that excited people and motivated them to be a part of the team. With this in mind, we wanted to be sure that those who joined would work well with each other when solving problems, and it has really worked out. If anyone ever feels burnout after finishing a project, there is room to make a newer team that is ready and excited to take on new challenges.
Laurie: We are essentially a customer service department, so we are always very patient-driven. Our motto is always that the patient comes first, and sometimes we will identify a procedure that doesn’t feel top beneficial to the patient, so we will shift our perspectives and approach accordingly. As a result, we find ourselves working smarter, not harder. Michelle will always help us in reducing the number of steps that we have to take to get the patient their information in the shortest amount of time while working on a very daunting computer program and simultaneously being on the line with someone who is eager to get their information. If we can get them what they need when they need it, the whole process becomes easier for us too.
Michelle: To be a part of this team is truly exciting. It is exciting to see the rest of the team involved and motivated. It is moving to feel the trust that we have in one another to get things done. As a team, it’s a huge motivator to participate because everyone has been so defeated previously in our attempts to make change. It is inspiring to feel that we all want to get things done and make our department the best that it can be.
SHARE Executive Board & Representative Nominations Now Open
SHARE Joins Coalition to Protect Community Care
The SHARE Executive Boards at the Med Center and Marlborough Hospital have voted to join the Coalition to Protect Community Care. SHARE leaders are already on the record as opposing the expansion of Mass General Brigham (MGB), because the expansion threated SHARE Union jobs, the financial stability of our hospitals, and care for our most vulnerable patients. (Read more about how MGB’s expansion could impact SHARE jobs and Central Massachusetts.)
By joining the Coalition, SHARE joins forces with providers (UMass Memorial, Shields and Wellforce), community organizations (including the YWCA, the Boys and Girls Club, the United Way, Thrive, Centro and the Central West Justice Center), the Chambers of Commerce of Worcester and Marlborough, and the Mass Nurses Association.
The latest that we’ve heard from the Mass Department of Public Health about their decision about allowing MGB to build these new clinic centers is that DPH has extended the comment period because some technical problems prevented people from submitting their comments.
Blog Digest: Pension & Retirement Info Meetings THIS WEEK, Union Elections, and More . . .
Your Pension and 401K: SHARE Member Info Meetings
On Wednesday and Thursday this week, SHARE will be hosting online training sessions about the Pension and 401k. Did you know that, as a SHARE member, you have a Defined Benefit Pension? Do you know how to take advantage of the hospital’s 401k contribution match? Please join us! Click here for meeting times and login information . . .
Emails from AFSCME
AFSCME recognizes the important work of union members through its Never Quit award. One of last year’s recipients was SHARE’s own Jackie Rodriguez! (Click the image for her story)
This month you should receive a series of emails from SHARE’s parent union, AFSCME. These will celebrate the work of the more than 1.6 million AFSCME Union members from throughout the US.
AFSCME also encourages you to stay in touch by making sure that they have your most recent contact information on file. You will soon receive an email showing the current contact information they have on file and will give you the opportunity to confirm or update your name, email and phone number. This helps to keep you current with benefits including Union Plus and the AFSCME Free College Benefit.
Important Information about Upcoming Union Election
All SHARE members were recently sent notification of the upcoming SHARE elections. The notice describes how to make sure you’re a registered member, learn about the new online voting, and update your contact information to stay connected. In case you missed it (or misplaced it), that information is all online: you can read it here.
Your Pension and 401K: SHARE Member Info Meetings THIS WEEK
Join us to learn about your pension, and about your 401K
Yes, you have a pension! Learn all about it.
Are you taking advantage of the hospital’s “match” for your 401K? Learn more about saving for retirement.
We’re hosting two remote sessions this week (login details below).
Please help spread the word to your co-workers. Thank you!
Wednesday, May 12
4:00-4:30 pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88115920056?pwd=djFXcCtybDB4RUdEbGJ6eDRPRzZtdz09
Meeting ID: 881 1592 0056
Passcode: 977500
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,88115920056#,,,,*977500#
Thursday, May 13
12-12:30, or
12:30-1:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85311064152?pwd=UTdUendGS3lETDkzVWplYTZMczZaUT09
Meeting ID: 853 1106 4152
Passcode: 094845
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,85311064152#,,,,*094845#
Important Info for Upcoming Union Election
Online Voting
SHARE members will be able to vote electronically for the first time, using a smartphone, tablet or computer. The process will be run by an independent, certified online voting company. There is also an option to vote by mail for those who prefer it. Electronic voting will make participation easier for employees who are on vacation, working from home, or who are not easily able to get away from their department.
Update Your Contact Info
We need to make sure we have your personal contact information for the upcoming SHARE Rep and Executive Board Elections. The online voting company can send the link/ballot by:
text to your cell phone number,
email to your personal (non-work) email account, or
U.S. mail to your home address
So, to prepare for the election, we need to have your up-to-date contact information. You can update your contact info one of two ways. (1) click here, OR (2) email share.elections@theshareunion.org to send your contact info by 5/3/21.
If you Prefer to Vote by Mail
Please email us at share.elections@theshareunion.org by 5/3/21 to let us know that you would prefer to have a paper ballot mailed to your home.
When Are Elections?
You’ll be receiving a letter inviting you to nominate your co-workers and/or yourself in early May. If we have more nominees than available slots, we’ll hold elections in early June.
Haven’t Yet Signed Your Membership Card?
There are some of you, especially newer employees, who haven’t signed a membership card yet. While there are a number of reasons why this might be, we want to make sure we give you a heads-up so that you can sign up to be a member in time for the vote.
If you have any questions about joining the union, don’t hesitate to contact us by emailing share.newmembers@theshareunion.org, calling 508-929-4020 or reaching out to your SHARE organizer, rep or executive board member directly. You may also find the answers to some common questions by clicking this FAQ about SHARE Union membership.
If you’re ready to join today, click here to find a PDF of the card online. To send SHARE a signed card via email, you can print the card, sign, scan and email it to share.newmembers@theshareunion.org. To send via mail, please let your organizer know your address and we’ll send you a blank card along with a pre-stamped envelope.
Questions? Concerns?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us by emailing share.elections@theshareunion.org, calling the office at 508-929-4020, or contacting your organizer directly.
Blog Digest: Juneteenth, New Website Highlights, and Opposing MGB Expansion
SHARE Members Testify Against Mass General Brigham Expansion to Westborough
Rita Caputo, SHARE Co-President at the Med Center testified, “If MGB drives up the costs of health care, it’s going to hurt everyone except MGB. At least we have a union to try to figure out what to do about it with our hospital, on behalf of our members.”
At the DPH virtual hearing on April 6, SHARE members from both UMass Memorial Medical Center and UMass Memorial Marlborough Hospital testified against MGB’s proposal to expand to Westborough. As the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports, “Voices of many, including local and state officials, rose in opposition to Mass General Brigham's plans for an ambulatory care center in Westboro as the Department of Public Health hosted a hearing on the application for the project.” Read what SHARE members had to say . . .
Juneteenth becomes a massachusetts state holiday
Last Summer, Governor Baker designated Juneteenth as an official Massachusetts state holiday. Also known as “Freedom Day,” June nineteenth recognizes an important event in realizing the full emancipation of slaves in the United States. The change does not alter the current contract agreement our union has made with UMass Memorial about the holiday schedule. The new designation is already making a meaningful impact. Read more . . .
New Website Highlights
We’re constantly adding more information and resources to our union’s website. Did you know that you can easily search the SHARE site by subject or keyword? Have you seen our recently updated Welcome Page for New Members or the SHARE guide to Getting Help of all kinds? Or the latest on our home page Twitter feed? Learn More . . .
A Website for You and Your Coworkers
Our union’s Twitter feed collects up relevant news for members from around the web, and publishes to the SHARE home page
Our union was built one conversation at a time, and continues to grow and strengthen through our connections. The SHARE Reps and Organizers are always happy to help think things through together.
Over the years, we’ve also worked to develop our website, filling it with easy-to-access ideas and information. You can quickly find what you need, by keyword or by subject, using the site’s search tools. Or, browse around to get a glimpse of the many things our union is doing.
SHARE continually adds information to our union’s running blog, and to the rest of our website, too. Have you seen our updated Welcome section for new members? Or the Getting Help section, which provides resources of all kinds: financial, legal, personal health, counseling services, dealing with managers and co-workers, and much more?
Is there something specific you’d like to see on the SHARE website? Let us know!
Using the site’s Search Tools, you can search the SHARE blog, our Contract Agreement with UMass Memorial Hospital, or the entire website
SHARE Members Testify Against Mass General Brigham Expansion to Westborough
At the DPH virtual hearing on April 6, SHARE members from both UMass Memorial Medical Center and UMass Memorial Marlborough Hospital testified against MGB’s proposal to expand to Westborough. As the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports, “Voices of many, including local and state officials, rose in opposition to Mass General Brigham's plans for an ambulatory care center in Westboro as the Department of Public Health hosted a hearing on the application for the project.”
Below are some highlights of SHARE members’ testimony:
Kim Latrobe, SHARE Rep and Vascular Tech, said, “I love my job and the patients that I care for. I hear firsthand about the communities struggle along with personal family troubles with the economic impact of the pandemic. Any increase to the cost of care will greatly affect the families with their continued health care. MGB has a track record of merging, acquiring or pushing out community healthcare systems and then pricing services at a higher cost, increasing the financial burden placed upon patients throughout the Commonwealth.”
Kelly Fournier, Radiation Therapist at the Cancer Center at Marlborough Hospital voiced her concerns. “A lot of our patients have MassHealth insurance. We welcome and treat everyone. They are just as sick and just as deserving of our care as anyone else, even though our hospitals get paid less for caring for them than for patients with private insurance. I worry that a new MGB facility in Westborough would pull the private insurance patients away from UMass Memorial. We need those patients too. It makes up for the cost of caring for MassHealth patients. Our safety net hospitals will be in financial danger and may not survive. That could be a huge impact not only on our jobs, but also on our patients who need a safety net hospital like UMass Memorial. They need us to be here for them.”
Rita Caputo at work in the Primary Care Clinic
Rita Caputo, SHARE Co-President at the Med Center testified, “If MGB drives up the costs of health care, it’s going to hurt everyone except MGB. At least we have a union to try to figure out what to do about it with our hospital, on behalf of our members. I feel bad for all the non-union workers out there, and the small businesses trying to provide health insurance for their employees.”
Janet Wilder, SHARE Organizer, wrapped up her statement by saying, “On behalf of over 3000 SHARE members and their families, we urge DPH to protect existing good local jobs and to keep the cost of our health care from increasing unnecessarily. That means taking a really close look at the MGB proposal, asking the Health Policy Commission to do a truly independent cost analysis, and then making the right decision.”
Scheduled from 6p-9p, the hearing lasted until 10pm because there were so many people who wanted to have a say. Testimony against the MGB proposal outnumbered testimony in favor by about 3-to-1, it seemed. Taryn Harding, Ultrasound Tech from Marlborough Hospital, said the next day, “I’m inspired by last night’s hearing. I feel like those who are “opposed” dominated that call . . . over four-and-a-half hours-worth of it!”
Juneteenth Will Be a Massachusetts State Holiday This Year
Last Summer, Governor Baker designated Juneteenth as an official Massachusetts state holiday. Also known as “Freedom Day,” June nineteenth recognizes an important event in realizing the full emancipation of slaves in the United States.
No Change to Holiday Schedule at UMass Memorial
Most employers, including our hospital, are not legally obligated to recognize the newly designated holiday. Although we urge the hospital to officially recognize this important day, the announcement by the state does not affect the current agreement that SHARE and UMass Memorial about the holiday schedule. (See Contract Page 56 for the holiday policy).
Important Effects of Massachusetts’ Juneteenth Observance
UMass Medical School has already added the holiday to its list of official holidays. The State’s new legal designation also adds June 19th to the list of dates recognized under Massachusetts’ “Blue Laws,” thereby creating time-off and premium pay requirements for retail employers.
Our union and our hospital have more to do to promote the holiday and its implicit call to further racial equity. Juneteenth also served as an occasion for hospital CEO Erick Dickson describe our hospital’s commitment to addressing racial disparities on his Everyday Innovators blog.
About Juneteenth
Governor Deval Patrick first officially recognized Juneteenth in Massachusetts by proclamation in 2007. On the UMass Amherst website, Professor Amilcar Shabazz explains its history, “Many believe that Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery for all enslaved people in the United States with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, but it took more than two years for word to reach enslaved people in the isolated parts of Texas. Many slave owners resisted and refused to free their slaves.
It wasn’t until U.S. Army General Gordon Granger announced on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, that slaves had been freed. “There was a field order that said, ‘here’s what’s going down and if you don’t like it, you’ll face our Springfield rifles.’ When Black people got the word, they took that day off and celebrated their freedom,” said Shabazz. The annual celebration continued on into the 20th century.”
SHARE’S Responsibility to Further Racial Equity
SHARE celebrates diversity and continues to work toward policies and pay structures that foster racial equity in our community. We like how our parent union, AFSCME, puts it: “We at AFSCME will never lose sight of the connection between racial justice and economic justice or forget the Jim Crow roots of so-called ‘right to work’ or any other law that divides us as a nation. As we continue the struggle, we will lean on one of the enduring lessons of black history: a thriving African American community, with economic security and upward mobility, depends on strong unions.”
SHARE Members Information Meeting: About MGB
Why SHARE Opposes Mass General Brigham Expansion in Westborough
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Noon-12:30 & 12:30-1:00
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85231547713
Or dial-in: 301-715-8592 and enter meeting ID: 85231547713
“I hope people get fired up about this. A big new shiny building isn’t going to necessarily be better or give you good care. A sparkling waiting room isn't going to give you good care. Marlborough Hospital is a small community hospital. We don't have big parking garages, you don’t have to pay to park. You’re greeted at the door when you come in, even before COVID. We play a vital role in the community, and we serve an under-served part of the community. It would be a shame if MGB came into town, because I worry that we would have to close eventually.” — Melissa Green, Surgical Technologist & Member of the SHARE Executive Board at Marlborough Hospital
Join us to talk about why SHARE Executive Boards at both Marlborough Hospital and the Medical Center voted to oppose the huge clinic complex that Mass General Brigham (MBG) is proposing to build in Westborough. The MGB complex could threaten SHARE jobs, increase the cost of our health insurance, and hurt the finances of our safety net hospitals. Read more here.
SHARE leaders will be among many to testify at the DPH hearing against the proposal on April 6th and provide written testimony after. UMass Memorial and numerous local mayors, city councilors, community groups, state reps, healthcare providers and chambers of commerce are testifying against the proposal because they don’t think it would be good for healthcare and citizens in Central Mass.
Join us Wednesday during your lunch break to hear more, and to find out how you can put in your two cents to help stop the new MGB clinics in Westborough.
p.s., In case you missed it, check out SHARE’s post and links to the Chronicle episode on WCBV Channel 5 that was dedicated entirely to UMass Memorial caregivers’ work during the pandemic
ICYMI: UMass Memorial Featured on Chronicle
On SHARE’s own website, we put the spotlight on members during the pandemic. In this SHARE’d Story, Patient Care Associate and SHARE Representative Kona Enders, above, describes her own experience caring for critically-ill COVID patients on 3 West and in the CDU. Read them all . . .
In case you missed it, Boston’s WCBV Channel 5 recently dedicated an entire episode to covering the challenges that caregivers have met at UMass Memorial through the pandemic. You can still see all four segments of the episode online:
Blog Digest: Ask Your Vaccine Questions, Mass General Brigham, and the American Rescue Plan
The COVID Vaccine: Be in the Know
Now that employee vaccine appointments are available through Employee Health again, you may have unanswered questions. If you want an expert to come answer all the questions you and your co-workers have, please let SHARE know. We would be happy to help arrange a conversation with a knowledgeable member of our community. Learn more about COVID, the vaccines, what SHARE members want to know, and what experts have to say in this roundup.
If you have not yet received your COVID-19 vaccine and would like to, please call the Employee Health Services COVID-19 Vaccination Information Line at 508-334-0070. Employee Health staff will take your information and schedule an appointment for you.
What Could the Mass General Brigham Expansion Mean for SHARE Members?
You’ve likely seen the recent email from UMass Memorial CEO Eric Dickson about our hospital’s concern that the Mass General Brigham (MGB) plans to spend $400 million to build new ambulatory centers and clinics, including one in Westborough. The MGB’s proposal, as Dr. Dickson states, “puts the most vulnerable patients of our region at an even more unfair disadvantage to gain access to high-quality care.”
The SHARE Executive Board at Marlborough Hospital is particularly concerned about MGB taking away UMass Memorial patients. If patients decide to get their outpatient care there, those patients are likely to be referred to drive into Boston when they need inpatient care too. If a substantial number of patients choose MGB, that could threaten jobs at Marlborough Hospital. Read more . . .
The American Rescue Plan: Meaningful Spending for Americans, but No Hazard Pay
The Federal government has passed a $1.9 trillion bill designed to better help Americans protect themselves against the devastating health and economic effects of the pandemic. The program contains lots of good news for families and cities and towns, but it doesn’t include hazard pay. Read more . . .
About the Covid Vaccines, Right Here in Our Hospital
“Ask Anything” about the Vaccine in Your Department
Mitz DeSouza, SHARE Member and X-Ray Technologist at Marlborough Hospital, received one of the first doses for caregivers at UMass Memorial. Read more . . .
Now that employee vaccine appointments are available through Employee Health again, SHARE members who haven’t gotten the COVID vaccine may want to get more of their questions answered. If you want an expert to come answer all the questions you and your co-workers have, let SHARE know. We would be happy to help arrange it.
SHARE and SHARE Executive Board Member Deb Clark recently worked with management to set up an “Ask Anything” session for the CDU at University. Dr. Stuart Levitz, Infectious Disease specialist, spent an hour answering questions with the SHARE members and co-workers. “It was very informative. He was willing to answer all questions, and he was very easy to speak to,” says Deb. She added that they could ask him anything at all.
SHARE’s goal is to get information to SHARE members, so that they can make an informed decision about whether they want to get the vaccine or not.
Learn More
Whether we’ve been vaccinated or not, many of us continue to have questions and concerns about the new COVID vaccines. Their development has been, in some ways, unlike anything we’ve seen before. Plus, as Dr. Torian Easterling, New York City’s Deputy Commissioner and Chief Equity Officer puts it, “after decades of racist disinvestment and medical mistreatment, Black and Latino communities have every reason to be skeptical.” And furthermore, it can be difficult to sort through misinformation.
One of the most informative (and witty) presentations to take on the most common questions about the vaccines can be found in this video from Hello Black America! with W. Kamau Bell & Black Health Care Workers. You can also check out CovidActNow for a comprehensive FAQ. SHARE continues to round up information, too, in blog posts marked #Covidvaccine and on Twitter.
How to Get Help — and Help Others — to Get Vaccinated
Massachusetts residents who already qualify for the vaccine can get help booking their appointments. (You can also visit that site to volunteer to help.)
Even if they aren’t eligible yet, Massachusetts residents can pre-register and be in line for the vaccine at a state-run site when the shot does become available to them.
·For those who are fully-vaccinated, the CDC has issued this guidance
Geeky and beautiful and scary all at the same time, this Animation of SARS-CoV-2 Entry into Human Host-Cell is pretty neat.
Where Is COVID Research Headed?
MassLive reports that, right here, “UMass Medical School has been working to sequence COVID viral samples in-house to track the presence of variants in Worcester County. A large number of cases of the U.K. variant confirmed in Massachusetts earlier this year were first discovered in Worcester County.”
Meanwhile, medical science continues to identify more symptoms and learn more about “long Covid. ” For a deep dive into the variants we know about, the potential for others, and what we can do about them, check out this America Dissected podcast.
The COVID Vaccine at UMass Memorial
As of now, roughly two-thirds of UMass Memorial’s employees have received the COVID vaccine. Simultaneously, employee COVID rates have plummeted: for many days in recent weeks, no new cases have been reported among caregivers; fewer than twenty employees are currently on leave due to the disease. UMass Memorial leaders and infectious disease experts also tell us that those caregivers who recently became ill with COVID were unvaccinated. Thankfully, the evidence continues to build that the vaccine can live up to its promise.
Taking Care of Each Other
We know that, when it comes to the vaccines, there’s a risk/benefit comparison for each of us to make, and the calculations aren’t the same for everyone. We encourage all SHARE members to keep informed, reach out with questions or concerns, and keep doing a brilliant job taking care of patients and one another.
American Rescue Plan: Meaningful Spending for Americans, But No Hazard Pay
“As part of the American Rescue Plan just signed by President Biden, states, cities and towns will receive $360 billion in flexible funding. This will stop furloughs and layoffs faced by public service workers who have been on the front lines of this pandemic,” says AFSCME President Lee Saunders.
You have probably seen the news that the US government last week passed a massive COVID-19 relief program called the American Rescue Plan. NPR reports that the bill “allocates money for vaccines, schools, small businesses and anti-poverty programs such as an expanded child tax credit that will mean new monthly payments to many parents.”
That’s great news, although we had hoped for more. In January, President Biden’s earlier proposal for the bill called on “private sector employers to provide hazard pay to essential frontline employees, and to apply it retroactively to the start of the pandemic.” One frustrating shortcoming of the bill, however, is that, ultimately, it omitted hazard pay.
Independent research, such as that reported by the Brookings Institute, has shown that hazard pay is important to frontline workers. We would like to say a special thank you to those members who have worked with SHARE to urge for hazard pay, and who have pressed your legislators for their support, too.
As AFSCME President Lee Saunders describes, the American Rescue Plan benefits us all, especially our local cities and towns and families. We thank all SHARE members who have worked so hard in the face obstacles and dangers to take care of patients, and to keep our hospital running strong.
Member Spotlight: Kim Latrobe
Vascular Technologist, Surgical Vascular Lab, Memorial Campus
interviewed by Rafael Rojas, 1/26/21
I work in the Vascular Lab, in which I do vascular ultrasound and work right alongside the surgical team. It’s pretty neat that we get to work directly with them, but it’s gotten pretty crazy with this pandemic. When COVID first started, it was classified as respiratory illness, but as the studies progressed and the multitude of symptoms that patients would feel were identifies, it became clear that it is a disease that directly effects the vascular system. This meant that it got very busy very quickly. It is pretty tough right now with how saturated every day is with work. We have changed our protocol drastically to manage time, and to monitor the ways in which we go in and out of the surgical room. For example, we have reduced the time of certain procedures that were not as essential, such as scanning. This has saved us time in the room and has felt really well done.
In the beginning, everyone was very nervous about the pandemic, but also about carrying out new procedures correctly and effectively. Now it feels standard and walking into that surgical room seldom feels any different from walking into it last year.
We have a really strong team and a really organized manager in the Vascular Lab. She always seems to be one step ahead of whatever seems to come up, and she has been great at getting the whole team ready for the new changes. She actually held meetings every week with us as this pandemic started to grow – just to check in on how we were feeling and what we wanted to work on. It is because of this preparation and initiative that our team was prepared before we even started. This surge we were also able to better prepare with the PPE and the feelings of being safe and relaxed came with it. Things are also looking up with the vaccine being distributed. Our manager helped us out by arranging our schedules so that taking the time to get vaccinated would be easy, and many of my coworkers will be getting their second dose soon!
I live down in Connecticut where things are so messed up compared to how things are at work. Their plan to get vaccinate regular citizens was so poorly coordinated that people cannot book their appointments to receive their second dose when they need it. I still wouldn’t say that I feel safer at work than I do at home, but when I go to the store, I am reminded of this joke that we have at work. We say that it’s better to go into COVID room than to go to an outpatient room where you are not covered in full protective garb. I guess in the same sense when you go to the store or anywhere nowadays you kind of have your guard up a little bit. I’ve been lucky to not know anyone closely who has had any serious outcomes from getting sick, and it’s important that I do what I can to keep it that way. My husband is at a slightly higher risk than me, and this fear comes naturally when you are trying to protect your family.
This second surge was a scary thing to go through, but I’m hopeful that things will start to get better. With that said, I still think that this is going to be a longtime thing. I’m wondering how this is going to affect people in the future with hugging and socializing. It’s tough to imagine that it will feel the same as it did. Maybe this is just me. There are really some people out there with completely different mentalities, and they’re already living as if this pandemic is all made up! Just the other day I was at the store and I ran into a man with no mask. “Oh, you’re one of them,” he said! One of them . . . it made me take the time to look at him and explain that I work with COVID patients, and that I know my actions are protecting him. He just looked at me funny, I think hoping that he would get me all defensive and wound up, so he just laughed and walked away. I knew he would have nothing to say, so it felt good to have stood my ground and be confident in knowing that I’m doing the right thing.
Hopefully the actions of those who are doing the right thing will be enough to let us go back to what we miss the most soon. For me it is that moment of getting to hug the ones I care about that I look forward to the most, and I know that I’m not alone. Just the other day I had a coworker come up to me in tears saying that she just could not stand having to be so distant from everyone anymore. I’m thankful that she came up to me to share these feelings. I want all of my coworkers to know exactly how grateful I am for their ability to keep the calm and to keep the smiles in our office. It’s pretty common to run into someone who is just having a terrible day, and it’s okay. As a team full of workers and nurses who have gone through hell, it’s amazing how people will pull through to keep their composure and each other’s spirits up. If you think I’m “one of them,” I’ve got you fooled!
Read more about Kim’s experience in the Vascular Lab UBT Spotlight!
Mass General Is Coming this Way
What does Mass General Brigham Expansion West
Mean for SHARE Members?
If you’ve seen the news lately, you may have seen the articles (here and here) about Mass General Brigham’s plans to build at new outpatient center in Westborough. Mass General Brigham (formerly “Partners”, now known as “MGB”) announced it plans to spend $400 million to build new ambulatory centers in 3 towns along the outer suburban ring of Boston -- Westborough, Woburn, and Salem, NH – as well as to expand their clinics in Westwood.
Competition for UMass Memorial
The SHARE Executive Board at Marlborough Hospital is particularly concerned about MGB taking away UMass Memorial patients since they would be close by. If patients decide to get their outpatient care there, they may drive into Boston when they need inpatient care too. If a substantial number of patients choose MGB, that could threaten jobs at Marlborough Hospital.
MGB is the largest provider of healthcare in Massachusetts, with notoriously deep pockets. They are locating these clinics in relatively wealthy towns, where there are more patients with private insurance. Hospitals get paid more for the care we provide by private insurance than by from Medicare, and especially by MassHealth (Medicaid). Some say that MGB is intentionally trying to attract the better-paying patients, while leaving safety net hospitals like UMass Memorial to care for the Medicare and Medicaid patients. That’s not good for the bottom line at UMass Memorial.
Making the Cost of Care Go Up?
The cost of care at Mass General Brigham is higher than at other providers in the state. Data from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission showed that “As more outpatient procedures shift to Partners hospitals, costs overall go up.” These proposed new clinics could accelerate that trend. If UMass Memorial employees choose to get their care at the new MGB locations, it could increase the cost of health insurance for all of us.
DPH Approval Needed
MGB has to get approval from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health before building these new ambulatory centers. UMass Memorial and other health systems will probably want their voices to be heard in that process. SHARE plans to pay close attention to the proceedings, and to make SHARE members’ point of view heard.