Humans of UNAC/UHCP: Samantha Gordon, Kaiser patient

“The surgeon looked at my seven-year-old daughter and said, ‘This isn’t an emergency, but it will become one if we don’t take care of it now.’

“That was in August. My daughter has a non-emergent surgical issue—nothing life-threatening at the moment, but the kind of thing that will eventually cause her pain and medical problems if left untreated. The pediatric surgeon was clear: We needed to get it taken care of while she’s at this age, before it becomes a bigger problem.

“‘A team will call you to schedule,’ he told us. ‘It may be a few weeks.’ I said okay. I trusted the system.

“We waited.

“When we didn’t hear anything, we reached out. They told us they’d call when there was availability. Then my husband got a different call: they were only booking emergency surgeries because they were so short-staffed. ‘We’ll call you. You don’t need to call us. It may be a while.’

“From August until the end of January—six months—we didn’t have a surgery date.

“There was one moment in December that felt hopeful. They called and left a message about a last-minute cancellation. By the time I called back the next day, the spot was gone.

“Finally, three weeks ago, they called with a date: this Monday. We prepared everything. We talked to our daughter about what would happen, tried to make it less scary. We canceled all her sports activities. We scheduled a family member to fly out and help us because we’d both need to juggle work and her recovery. We took multiple days off. We got everything ready.

“Yesterday, the scheduler called. I could hear in her voice how hard this was for her.

‘We’re canceling the surgery because of the strike.’

“I asked if there was a rescheduled date. ‘We can’t give that to you because it’s open-ended.’

“I told her, ‘This has nothing to do with you. Thank you for calling.’ And I meant it—she was just the messenger. But I also told her how frustrating this was. That Kaiser has understaffed to the point where we had to wait six months to even get a date for my seven-year-old to have surgery, her doctors say she needs. And then the workers are so stretched and disrespected that by the time we finally get the date, they have to go on strike to get their needs met.

“I don’t put this on the workers. I put it on Kaiser.

“When she was born, none of the medical equipment worked correctly. My daughter couldn’t breathe. The Apgar machine wasn’t working; none of the devices were working. They were scrambling, bringing in other equipment while my newborn baby was barely breathing. They had to rush her to the NICU.

“A year later, I found out why. The operating engineers had gone on strike because Kaiser was refusing to properly staff maintenance and make sure their machines worked.

“My daughter could have died because of it.

“After she was born, I developed postpartum depression. I couldn’t get an appointment with a therapist because of chronic understaffing. I kept calling, kept asking. Nothing. Eventually, I had to appeal to upper management. I work in policy, so I know basic legal rights. I told them I felt like we were reaching a mental health parity violation.

“The minute I mentioned potential legal exposure, suddenly I had an email from a manager. Suddenly, I had an appointment.

“That patients have to advocate that much—that we have to threaten legal violations just to get responses—is really unacceptable.

“I can see our surgeon and the medical teams going out of their way to help us. I can feel it in every interaction. I know the workers don’t want to be in this situation. I know they want to be serving their patients. I can feel that when I interact with them.

“These issues are structural. They’re systemic. They come from leadership decisions that prioritize profit over patients.

“When there are strikes, people want to blame the workers, like they’re being greedy. But the question is where is the greed actually sitting?

“It’s not the workers trying to get a living wage. My husband’s a therapist. He works so hard to make sure he can see his patients every week because they’re facing suicidal ideation and really dangerous situations. Every health care worker I know wants more access for their patients to care. They’re not the problem.

“The problem is a health care system—and Kaiser is deeply part of this—that prioritizes padding their bottom line and padding executive pay over making sure patients get the care they need.

“It’s wild to me that they’re still considered a nonprofit.

“I’ve lived in California for 11 years. My first five years here, before I had a child, I didn’t have any issues. I was healthy and able to be seen on a pretty regular basis. I didn’t hear the kind of chatter about Kaiser that I hear now.

“But in the last five or six years, things have changed. People are concerned. Kaiser is a huge employer in this state. Lots of us have friends and family members who work there. Your employees are your ambassadors.

“Right now, Kaiser’s employees are unhappy. All my friends who work at Kaiser have either left, want to leave, or love their work so much they’re barely holding on. When you ask them what it’s like inside that system, they’re frustrated and burned out.

“Many people in my life are willing to pay more to be in other health care systems because they don’t feel like Kaiser will take care of them if things get dire. Too many of us have had these experiences over and over again. Their mistreatment of staff and their chronic understaffing create really dangerous situations for all of us. People know that. People talk about it.

“The only reason Kaiser gets away with this is because people are so stretched economically that they’re willing to take Kaiser because sometimes it’s nominally cheaper on a monthly basis.

“We haven’t made that choice to leave because I think Kaiser’s model is really cool and interesting. I feel really positively toward our doctors and nurses. I feel like there are high-quality professionals working there. It’s just that we keep hitting up against these administrative systems. It’s really, really difficult.

“I don’t feel like the system is invested in me or my daughter’s care. But I do feel like the actual health care workers are.

“I’m so thankful my daughter’s situation isn’t an emergency right now. But what if it was? What if I was having to fight and wait and go through all of this for an actual emergency?

“I just want to know that it’s going to be safe to have my daughter as a patient at Kaiser. That when push comes to shove, if she’s ever in a life-threatening situation, I can count on them. I know I can count on the nurses. I know I can count on the doctors.

“The question is: Can she be seen? Will she be taken seriously? Will I be able to access what I need to make sure my daughter’s safe?

“Going on strike is something no one ever wants to see happen. Not the workers who have to do it. Not the patients who are delaying their care. And frankly, not the hospital or the employer.

“But I trust these health care providers. They’ve taken an oath to keep us safe in our most vulnerable moments. If they’re taking such a significant step—walking off the job to demand better—it’s because they know how at risk we are.

“They wouldn’t do it if this was just a simple dollars and cents issue.

“Every health care worker I’ve interacted with—whether I was pregnant and giving birth, or needing mental health services, or taking care of my daughter—it’s so clear to me how seriously they take their vow to care for us when we need it.

“If they’ve reached a point where they know that without drastic action, all of us are at risk, I appreciate that as a patient.

“I trust them.”

—Samantha Gordon, Sacramento, Kaiser Permanente health plan member and patient