Present: Adam Castle, Antonino Guerrero, Tim Headlee, Matt Stenger, Carol Olson, Cindy Jungers, James Hemshrot, Marvin Sullivan, Kurt Crosby, Colleen Ryan, Alli Kuhlman, Ryan Cates, Stacy Mueller, Melissa Grau, Gus Grau, Mike Homer, Joann Holden, Elizabeth Tranum, Colleen Ryan, Michelle Schweim
Standing Agenda Items
Reflection Celebration: Carol Olsen-TSS class has been a success and would like to send out a thank you to all of the staff involved.
Old business
Management
None
AFSCME
CRP/Community Transition-Headlee: waiting on responses about bidding process. Heard there was a mix up due to lack of information on the postings. Jungers: fixed the problem and waiting to hear back from the management. Night positions have not been changed yet. Waiting to hear back from one area before putting forth the resolution on the bidding. Headlee: what keeps you capable and qualified as related to CERP? Carol: Competency Restoration will be one program on its own. Two different locations but is one program. Staff will be going back and forth between the two. Not sure on how the schedules will be laid out at this time but it will be as convenient as we can make it. We will start with drills for how to respond to situations and how response will work. Headlee: Per diems for mileage? Carol: will pay mileage if there is a schedule change that would require driving outside of usual travel. Headlee: could staff make themselves available for cross training for those interested for helping with overtime in CRP? Carol: We will take that to Keir.
Working Titles/SCL-Ideas: Clinical Security Officer, Forensic Counselor, Forensic Mental Health Counselor which have very similar job duties. Some suggestions from management are already in existence in the state but are at lower pay scale (management unaware) so AFSCME would prefer to not take on those names. Management is open to staff suggestions and will look into AFSCME’s suggestions as well.
New Business
Management
Construction Update-Substantial completion December 2nd and will turn over building at the end of December. Supervisors have been communicating to staff about concerns. Pharmacy will be the first area occupied.
Staff Appreciation Event/Years of Service-Invitation was posted on sharepoint on Tuesday. Will be from 1030 to 230. Night shift 930 to 11. Employee’s certificates will be presented. Desert provided by leadership and the meal catered by El Agave. View sharepoint for more information.
Scheduling Office- Switched leadership from TC to Colleen Ryan.
AFSCME
Bargaining unit 204 Hay Studies-Cindy: hay study is used when we determine there is a job that is not fitting the program anymore or a new job that doesn’t fit current job descriptions. These can be a class study as well. Example: We tried to do a class study after the leadership change but it ended up not having any merit. There is no standard time frame that a study needs to be done. A job audit can be requested individually. Headlee: This could be as simple as PD’s. We are hearing from carpenters that their PD is very different now than what they used to do. The percentages may be very different now. Some staff do not agree with the percentages as they relate to their actual job compared to PD’s. Many areas need to be redone. Commissioner uses these numbers as they relate to pay, contract, etc. So these are very important to us. Carol: any employee can take PD and make recommendations to their supervisor if they have concerns.
Campus Security “NOC” positions-Headlee: This summer placed a lot of strain on the staff. Requesting to run with 3 staff instead of two. Staff is asking to reassess their situation. Carol: historically had three as one was .8 staff but the needs shifted to day and evening with a .8 staff. Staff working nights were comfortable at the time but we can re-examine that and a .8 may not fix that but will look into the options.
BH Staff & Pt. ratios-Headlee: Staff are starting to recognize more patient movement. Are we within the appropriate staff client ratio? We need to be cautious about this. Is movement picking up and will there be more clients moving. Carol: We are seeing higher acuity. Very full at this time. Sent request to slow down admissions and potentially freeze intakes for now.
Kitchen Intermittent Staff scheduling-Staff are being scheduled without being asked by the scheduler. Colleen looked at this recently and it didn’t appear to be happening but she will look into this again and would like to meet with Mike Homer to get the staff’s name and look into this further. Agrees to make sure this isn’t happening.
OD’s not doing a call out before inversing staff in building. Headlee: with all of the attention overtime has received lately, can we make a good effort and try to alleviate this problem by at least giving this overtime to people who want it? Stenger: In another meeting management said staff cannot rescind an overtime shift because it is considered a scheduled shift, now you are saying management can take it away. Carol: This is based on changes in needs and overtime is not guaranteed. One to ones are sometimes discontinued which results in reduced need. However, I will take this to Scott. I would like to meet sooner than later. Would like to schedule another meeting before the next meet and confer so we can come up with something.
Inversing (Time between shifts not covered) Carol: please get the staff’s specifics so I can look into this.
Omni cells (BH-unit 300)-Headlee: safety and security concerns. Unit 300 is about physical factors relating to job duties. Carol: Please bring to safety committee meeting. Looking at the ergonomics of these areas. More commonly used meds can be moved to areas that provide easier accessibility. These rooms are temporary. Colleen: There doesn’t have to be a med room key for those nursing areas. Put these requests into Heglund. Colleen will also look into this.
POD assessments-Stacy: Medical assessments were missed on Saturday and Sunday. Physician on duty did not come down for the 4 hour check but authorized release for client who threatened to harm staff over the phone. Another physician placed two staff on one client who is very large and violent. The supervisor did not want to do this. Patient said he wanted to kill staff but the physician did not want to drive down from the cities but wanted to release the client which placed staff in a bad situation. OSHA statute says the rights of employees to refuse to work under dangerous conditions. Staff declined to sit two to one for this client. Kurt: Nurse said that if the patient is sleeping, it is a release situation. We had staff watching a locked door with camera on them watching the locked door. The patient on 1 north seclusion. Unlocking the door during sleeping criteria is acceptable but the physician was not present to make a good judgement call. Patient told the doctor he would hurt staff unless he is moved. Carol: We don’t always do everything right. We look back and do reviews and take action. Please trust that we do that and we will in this situation. Mistakes were made, staff safety is critical to us. We value staff and I am sorry that this happened, we move forward by making corrections in the future. Headlee: We would like night staff to be available to have access to the safety committee.
1:1 assignments & unit safety-Stacy: On unit 200 we had doctor’s orders for “body guard” Two clients who were not getting along, why not have them come together for a mediation instead of throwing staff at a situation? That’s what we are trying to teach these patients isn’t it? Bring in the treatment team to get the situation under control. Carol: There are a lot of team processes, bring that to the team. If you feel something could be improved, please contribute in those moments. I will take this back. Anyone can even write me an email. Kurt: Everyone was affected by the situation on 800. When we have a staff sitting on a unit in a corner with an actively assaultive patient. Staff should not be placed where TSS is not going to help. There are so many one to ones. Where do you put them when there are not any safe areas to be sitting with these patients alone? Carol: Critical Incident reviews will help with this and I will take this back.
Critical Incident debriefings-Headlee: We would like representation in debriefing process. Appoint an AFSCME point person for incident review. Stacy: needs to be awareness with our doctors about how low staffed we are, hours on duty, etc. Carol: don’t hesitate to ask your supervisor for an incident debriefing. Headlee: we would like to have time to do all of these things.
TSS Training-Headlee: Asked staff how they felt about TSS. Some said it was okay but would like to hear more about different shifts and from staff. Kurt: We try to go hands on as little as possible. There is a lot of stress when you go hands on due to investigations, injuries, etc. Feeling of threat of imminent risk of harm. Make sure to be able to justify how you were feeling this. This is different from person to person. Carol: We will support that. Headlee: Communicating how this is working between shifts is very important.
Light Duty coverage-Postponed to a later meeting
Grievance process-Hemshrot: why are we getting step one approved then HR gets them overturned? We will just go to step 3’s if that is the case. Cindy: At DHS, when we agree to do a pay out, it first goes to a review and if they don’t see a violation, it gets overturned and doesn’t get paid. Could we build in process that the local HR office can run it up that chain to MMB before we do a pay out? MMB likes to do a quick review when it comes to pay outs. James: now we are getting so many denied after they are approved. Gus: is there a reason they have so many days, why don’t they take opportunity to take to Melissa or Connie then they have a unified answer? Cindy: that’s exactly what we are going to be doing. James: are step 3’s the way to go. Cindy: that is not what we want to see happening. Cindy: it has been an internal review process. Cindy: The leadership only question if they think there is not a contractual violation.
Dress Code Policy-Carol: policy says if you work in a 24/7 you can wear jeans. But if you are participating in an activity that requires different clothing, work this out with your supervisor. Headlee: if we are going to be concerned with staff wearing hoodies then there are a lot of other things we need to look at. Carol: This is a DCT policy. This should be an issue directed to DCT. Headlee: if we are going to be deciphering what fabric, color, etc….We want to bring up $300 a year that MSOP gets then I will wear what you want. Carol: we are not asking you to be business casual. Kurt: will staff be gigged for wearing hoodies? Carol: follow policy please. Carol: There is a caviat in the policy for hats allowed. Stenger: can we provide a caviat for hoods? Headlee: we go everywhere, some places may need to have something on our heads if its cold. Stenger: if we go to DCT would you support hoods? Carol: I would not fight you on that. Headlee: the timing was just a little strange with when it became part of the policy and when we got our AFSCME sweatshirts.
Supervisor would not offer overtime for a 3rd straight shift for safety reasons but others will. Kurt: What holds them accountable for their opinion? This should be consistent. Carol: we should not be doing that as supervisors, I will look into this. We should not be scheduling three shifts but it can be voluntary. Kurt: without parameters this isn’t safe. How can a supervisor determine someone to be physically able. Who determines someone is able to work a 3rd shift? Carol: I hear you and will look into it.
What is your definition of emergency? Joann: You guys use staff shortages as emergencies. Carol: I am not a supervisor on duty that makes those decisions so I am not at liberty to make that decision right now. Joann: Who do I talk to clarify what this is? Cindy: Everybody understands tornado, fire, etc is an emergency. Patient care as far as not many staff on duty which may be considered an emergency when we are not able to plan. More things that are unpredictable like one to ones and so on. Joann: so sick calls is not an emergency? So emergency could be anything you interpret it to be. Jo Pells is in disagreement and we have different avenues to go with this then. Cindy: I would never say blanketly what an emergency is. Joann: Jo has had conversations with MMB about this. Headlee: when you simply don’t hire, or do a call out, that is a staffing issue, not an emergency. This needs to be talked about.
Request vacation 4 weeks in advance whenever practical. Kurt: When not practical, staff must request vacation from the supervisor. There was a staff whom requested over 28 days out. Schedule was posted and denied the vacation because they didn’t get to the vacation until Tuesday and they have up to 10 days to respond. The request was put in more than 28 days but denied due to schedulers not getting to it. This actually gives 40 days to respond instead of using earliest convenience according to contract. This is a problem if request is over 4 weeks but they wait until inside 4 weeks and then deny because of the foreseeable needs. Stenger: Melby said we aren’t using the slots given to us because this could be happening. Cindy: will follow up with the scheduling people. Stacy: They are basing it on need we have currently with all the one to ones right now. Carol: This is a scheduling question. We will talk to them about this.
Meeting adjourned at 230PM