Physicians Affiliated with Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Seeks Partnership with Administration to Protect Quality Care for Kids Across the Region
Palo Alto, Calif. – Nearly 110 pediatricians working for the Packard Children’s Health Alliance (PCHA), part of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, have filed to unionize with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD). The pediatricians provide care to children across 27 clinic locations throughout the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay region.
“I’ve wanted to be a pediatrician since I was six years old. Now, as an early career physician, the delivery and structure of medical care is very different even from what I knew it to be while pursuing that goal,” said a pediatrician leading the organizing effort. “For me, unionizing is an important step to continue to keep physicians in the conversation about how these changes in medical care affect our patients, our relationships with their families, and the quality of care we’re able to give to these children. It’s important that medicine not be reduced to just another product to market and sell, but that it remains a collaboration between a care team and the families they serve. We need to have a voice to advocate for this.”
The decision to organize comes after years of growing concern among the physicians that corporate pressures on healthcare are steering administrative decisions further away from the patients and families they serve. By forming a union, the pediatricians aim to establish a collaborative partnership with administrative leadership to shape policies that put children and families first, preserve the integrity of the patient-provider relationship, and uphold the standard of high quality care that every child in the region deserves.
“Healthcare is undergoing significant changes in how care is structured and delivered. Physicians must have a seat at the table as those changes unfold,” said Dr. Stuart Bussey, UAPD president. “These pediatricians are unionizing to ensure that clinical decision-making reflects the voices of those who know their patients best. The families who bring their children to the doctor deserve to know that their physicians are active partners in shaping that care.”
About the Union of American Physicians and Dentists
Established in 1972, the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) is the largest bicoastal union for licensed doctors and advanced practice clinicians in the nation—representing more than 7,000 private and public-sector healthcare practitioners. Affiliated with AFSCME and the AFL-CIO, UAPD brings the strength of the labor movement to the aid of providers in the interest of better medicine for all. Learn more at www.uapd.com.
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