More Than 300 LA County Health Workers Speak Out for Enhancing Patient Care

Health care is changing–and health care workers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center (MLK-MACC) and Hubert H. Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center are leading the way in ideas for making our facilities amongst the strongest in Los Angeles County for patients.
Last year more than 300 SEIU members who work at MLK-MACC and Humphrey Health Center participated in a survey about how to improve care for patients at the two facilities.
“I work in South LA because I’m dedicated to taking care of the patients in this community. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves to make our health care facilities among the best overall experience for patients anywhere. We’ve got great ideas – and we’re ready to work together with management to implement them.”
– Maria Berrote, RN, Humphrey Health Center
Here’s what we’re saying:
Patients first! Customer service first!
• Have workshops or classes to teach how best “to understand, communicate and be more receptive to the diverse customers we serve.”
• “Allow patients to be active participants in their care – ask patients how to improve delivery
of service.”
• We can “involve families more in … our patients’ continuity of care.”
• We can have more contact with patients outside of visits – in “educating people about their care and encouraging them to follow through with their prescriptions” and programs.
We want to be able to communicate with all our patients!
• We want “more classes to be able to communicate with our patients… [regardless of] the
language they speak.”
• “Interpreters should be available” whenever necessary.
Coordinate care better!
• If we had better technology for patient records, “we would not have to redo tests that
were already conducted at another County facility. That’s very expensive and wastes our
patients’ time.”
Scheduling can work better!
• “We can make it easier for patients to set appointments, and have more staff to answer their calls.”
• We can organize the work to “make sure on-time patients see their doctor on time!”
Let’s work together as management and health care workers!
• “When line staff assist management in decision making, we make better decisions.”
• We can coordinate better to have “staff help out in areas that are temporarily understaffed.”
• Let’s solve problems at the “point of care, before involving the ‘big wigs’.”
If you are interested in getting involved in SEIU 721’s work around performance improvement and access to quality care, please contact:
   MLK-MACC: Vivian Johnson (213) 276-8435
   Humphrey: Miguel Barragan (213) 923-0301
   Harbor: Jaime Torres (213) 276-8433 or Joy Solon (213) 379-2733