Topline: The sticking points: The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents the Kaiser employees, said the HMO has so far rejected three main contract points. That includes increased time for caregivers to work on patients’ files outside of their scheduled appointments, better pay and restoration of pensions. ‘Not OK’: Kassaundra Gutierrez-Thompson, a psychiatric counselor with Kaiser in Los Angeles, told LAist that some therapists are seeing 14 to 16 people a day and there isn't enough time allotted for following up outside of appointments, reviewing patient’s charts and keeping up with other duties.
She said patient care is suffering because therapists are burned out. “It is a broken system and our clinicians are not OK. I mean the amount of people that have to go out for stress relief or tell me they’re having migraines or panic attacks.
.. You know, this is not something we want to do but it feels like we have to,” Gutierrez-Thompson said.
Kaiser response: Kaiser representatives said they were working on a statement. We will update this story once we receive it. What a strike could mean for patients: Gutierrez-Thompson said if a strike does happen, intake appointments for people with urgent mental health crises may be delayed.
She said current clients could see delayed care and transfers to providers outside of Kaiser. Worker survey: In a recent survey of Kaiser mental health therapists in Southern California, 81% said they didn’t have enough t.
