The LMP was created in 1997 in response to a dramatic shift in New York’s healthcare industry. A new focus on managed care increased competition among hospitals and nursing homes, motivating providers to find new ways to strengthen customer loyalty and improve the quality of care while operating more cost efficiently. Union and management leaders soon recognized that success would rely on building
new relationships that focused less on their differences and more on their mutual interests. We began as a pilot sponsored by the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Nursing Homes of New York and 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and led by a team of consultants with backgrounds in healthcare and labor. The first six pilot projects were launched in hospitals, with the goal of exploring labor-management collaboration and demonstrating its value in addressing operational changes. The initial pilot sites were Beth Israel Medical Center, Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Center, Montefiore Medical Center, North General Hospital and St. Today, the LMP works with hospitals, nursing homes, ambulatory sites, and community-based healthcare organizations across three states: New York, Maryland and Florida. Building on the pilot programs’ initial achievements, we now offer a broad range of strategies to help labor and management work together to develop cost-effective and high-quality services, conduct research on job trends and industry changes, and promote communication and collaboration. In 2014, our success inspired the New York City Department of Labor to hire our then-director to create similar initiatives throughout the city. Our work is centered on serving the common interests of patients and residents, the union, and management. Our six main areas–research, skill-building and leadership development, hospital programs, nursing home programs, workplace wellness, and ambulatory care and community-based programs–work in concert with the RN programs administered by our parent Labor Management Initiative to support and deepen the work of quality improvement, engagement, and efficiency at the facility level and within the healthcare industry.
