Turning Around Kaiser Permanente Ohio through Labor-Management-Physician Partnership

Abstract

At the start of the new millennium, the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Ohio Region was like a boat caught m the perfect storm, in an intersection of forces that seemed poised to capsize it. Ohio had suffered industrial decline and employment losses for several decades. Tens of thousands of j obs disappeared in the steel and auto industries, and new job-market entrants were going where there was work, not to northern Ohio. As a result, the population of the Cleveland area, the center of KP Ohio's market, was declining in numbers, economic status, and health . ' In addition, Ohio had historically been more receptive to traditional healthcare programs and not to the health-maintenance organization (HMO) model that Kaiser Permanente pioneered in the Western states.