Cheers could be heard coming from the West Wing board room on Friday, June 4, when it was confirmed during the Joint Union/Management Efficiencies Task Force meeting that TOPS will be discontinued as soon as a replacement process for leave reporting is developed. The Task Force, created in the recent SEIU Local 1991/JHS contract addendum, undertook the TOPS project as its number one priority.
After hours of discussion and presentations by frontline employees, managers, and administrators on the horrors of TOPS, one of the management co-chairs, Melida Akiti, announced that Jackson management has agreed to heed the recommendations of the group and end the TOPS contract. A replacement process will need to be developed before TOPS is discontinued, and the Task Force will begin work on that, with input from employees, immediately.
This is especially exciting and welcome news to SEIU Local 1991 members who have objected to the time-consuming, error-ridden, inefficient and expensive TOPS system since the day it started at Jackson.
“This is a huge victory! Our members have been working hard to end TOPS and we are thrilled that our Joint Efficiencies Task Force was able to achieve this,” said SEIU Local 1991 President Martha Baker, RN, a co-chair of the Task Force.
The Efficiencies Task Force meets every Friday morning 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the West Wing board room. Members are welcome to attend. Current and future efficiency projects include reprocessing/remanufacturing of supplies, Omnicell supplies reorganization, efficiency dashboard and PT, PTT clinical best practices, among many others. If you are interested in getting involved in the Efficiency Task Force, contact Kathryn Ewers at Kathryn@seiu1991.org