More than 200 members of the union representing Kaiser Permanente Hawaii workers rallied Wednesday across the street from its Honolulu Clinic to protest the elimination of jobs.
Kaiser plans to lay off 13 clerical and emergency tech employees when it shutters the Urgent Care Center at 1010 Pensacola St. on March 16. The Honolulu Clinic will continue to see patients with appointments after that date, but will not take walk-in patients in need of urgent care, defined as illnesses that need prompt medical attention but are not emergencies.
Instead, the state’s largest health-maintenance organization said it will begin next week transferring patients to primary care physicians upstairs at the Honolulu Clinic.
"Kaiser is trying to convince the public that more and better quality care is possible by reducing resources, staff and accessibility to medical treatment," said Glenn Yoshimoto, a Honolulu Clinic emergency department business service clerk who is being laid off after 23 years. "Doctors only have eight hours a day to treat patients. A lot of them are kind of overloaded as it is, so how are they going to cram those patients into those slots? The arithmetic doesn’t add up. When you’re doing a job and start rushing, that increases the probability of making mistakes. That in and of itself jeopardizes patient safety."
Kaiser has said its plan to end urgent-care service at the Honolulu Clinic is part of a larger effort to improve overall care and streamline the appointment process to give patients same-day access to primary care doctors.
"When patients are connected to a personal (primary care physician) it improves quality, patient engagement and health outcomes," said Kaiser spokeswoman Laura Lott. "Access to care also improves because they can communicate directly with their providers via phone appointments and email."
Unite Here Local 5 is in the midst of contract negotiations with the HMO for roughly 1,900 workers statewide.
"We realize change can be difficult for people and we respect our union-represented employees’ right to share their point of view," Lott said. "By negotiating in good faith we hope to reach a mutually beneficial agreement soon."
Meanwhile, Kaiser is eliminating 46 registered nurse positions at some primary care clinics over the next few months, replacing them with licensed practical nurses and medical assistants.
The organization also has cut local after-hours advice nurses and instead is using a mainland call center.
"I would really love it if they kept local jobs for Hawaii’s people," said Ailene Ching, a 32-year-old receptionist at the Honolulu Clinic’s Occupational Health Services, who participated in the rally Wednesday on King Street. "I don’t think it’ll improve care. Having to talk to a nurse on the mainland, having them not understand Hawaii people, is just totally wrong."
