Hospital Care Cut as 1,900 Kaiser Workers Go on Strike

Jerry Voegtli normally designs hospital offices. But on Monday he was tramping the halls of Kaiser Permanente’s Woodland Hills hospital in a white coat with a stethoscope in his pocket.

“They made me a doctor,” he joked.

Actually, things weren’t that bad on the first day of a strike by the Hospital and Service Employees Union at seven of Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California hospitals. Voegtli was working as a respiratory therapist, a job he had performed for many years before being transferred three years ago to Kaiser headquarters in Pasadena, where he now works as a senior planner.

But with 1,000 of 1,800 workers out on strike in Woodland Hills, and another 900 of 2,500 out in Panorama City, those remaining on the job were being pressed into a variety of unaccustomed assignments to fill in for the striking technicians and licensed vocational nurses.

Jean Strauss, a top administrator, handed packets of information to 200 workers from Kaiser facilities as far away as Bakersfield who volunteered to help during the strike. The packets contained a map to keep the newcomers from getting lost.

She said the hospital was functioning well, although 17 non-critical-care patients were transferred to Humana West Hills Hospital, and the hospital was refusing to accept patients from ambulances unless the victims were in danger of dying. Thirty more patients were transferred from Panorama City’s facility.

Lynn Brassfield, a spokeswoman for the hospital in Woodland Hills, said Kaiser Permanente member-patients were being asked to reschedule medical appointments to reduce the load on the volunteer workers. Several floors were closed as the hospital’s capacity was reduced from 212 beds to 88 beds.

Kaiser officials began preparing for the strike three weeks ago, said Brassfield. Each employee received a card that requested background information on any medical skills they possessed. When the strike was called, people were matched with jobs that needed filling.

Sunday, ambulances were kept busy moving patients out of the hospital before the strike deadline at 12:01 a.m., Monday.

The strike by hospital workers in Woodland Hills got off to an almost polite start. A score of pickets marched along De Soto Avenue in front of the hospital, passing out information apologizing for the inconvenience.