Hundreds say farewell to Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson, console his family at Oakland visitation
Nabrissa Valovage followed Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson’s post on LinkedIn as a graduate student in public health, and so much of it resonated with her that she applied for and landed a job with the health care giant a few months ago.
Tyson, 60, died unexpectedly Nov. 10. His family will say farewell in an invitation-only memorial service Monday, but on Sunday, they hosted a public visitation at the Rotunda in Oakland. Valovage flew in from Aurora, Colo., where she works for Kaiser, to be among the hundreds to say farewell to a leader she hoped to meet one day.
“It was one of the key motivators as to why I wanted to join Kaiser in the first place,” she said. “I felt like it was bringing full circle a lot of the issues that I was also believing were contributing to adverse health outcomes within our populations. ... He did phenomenal work at addressing that at such a high-level position. He was very passionate about his work and I hope to carry that forward.”
Meadowview resident Tracy Thomas took the Amtrak train over to Oakland from Sacramento on Sunday. A Kaiser member, he weighed whether to go for a couple of days, discussing it with his family, and decided he had to be there for several reasons.
Thomas said he particularly appreciated how Tyson steadfastly advocated for a total health model that integrated primary care, health-risk assessments, disease and case management, wellness programs, behavioral health and health advocacy. He also liked Tyson’s commitment to diversity in hiring.
“I know a number of executives at Kaiser who have worked for him and one of the things they always talked about was his commitment to diversifying Kaiser, so that it represented the folks that it serves,” Thomas said. “He’s sort of this living legend, a good brother in my own time. It is a rare opportunity to come to a rotunda to see folks honor an African American man. I had to come.”
Tyson began his career at Kaiser on a six-month internship. Over more than 25 years with the company, he served in leadership roles from hospital administrator to division president before becoming the CEO in 2013 and chairman of the board in 2014.
Aside from the accomplishments that Thomas and Valovage cited, Tyson also will be remembered as a business executive who valued the voice of the working stiff. He was a critical force in forging a labor-union partnership in the 1990s that rescued Kaiser from crippling strikes and helped it to survive grueling competition from a growing field of for-profit health maintenance organizations.
However, labor-management relations expert Robert Bruno of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said in a phone interview that Tyson really saw the partnership as a new model for how to run a business.
The partnership, initially forged with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, “really did generate wages and benefits that set the (industry) standard, but perhaps most importantly it created something that union workers placed a higher value upon than benefits, and that is having a voice, being able to contribute to how work gets organized, how work gets done and to have that level of input is just really exceptional.”
Rebecca Kolins Givan, a labor-management relations professor at Rutgers University, said Tyson helped to elevate the voice of workers and their expertise in patient care, asking them how to make improvements while also ensuring organizational efficiency.
Givan, speaking by phone, said, “Most CEOs view unions as a nuisance and a problem, and if they were speaking in private, they would probably admit they wished they didn’t have to deal with them. Tyson didn’t behave like that.”
Bruno said it wasn’t just that Tyson expressed a belief in the partnership because that alone wouldn’t have been enough. He also did the hard work to ensure the partnership could be heard, helping to develop and nurture a communications system, a committee and calendar infrastructure for decision-making, rules for what’s covered and what isn’t, and much more.
The coalition fractured last year, Bruno said, but Tyson was able to reach contract agreements with the two labor alliances that emerged from that rift. Kaiser still has one union contract left to negotiate with behavioral health clinicians in the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The NUHW postponed a planned strike last week, after hearing of Tyson’s death.
In an email to The Sacramento Bee, labor leader Peter S. DiCicco recalled how Tyson would personally meet with and recognize unit-based teams – 3,500 joint work groups made up of union members, physicians and managers – who together strive to improve care.
DiCicco, executive director of Kaiser’s Alliance of Health Care Unions, recalled how Tyson once told them, “We have tapped into the potential of smart people all over the organization coming here every single day trying to figure out, ‘How do I improve quality, how do I improve service, how do I improve affordability?’ That’s an incredible competitive advantage for the organization.”
DiCicco also recalled how Tyson advocated for affordable health care for all, recalling how Kaiser’s CEO worked closely with the Obama administration to get health care marketplaces in place for the Affordable Care Act and committed Kaiser to participating in them.
Tyson spoke the truth and sought solutions on health care delivery, care disparities, care for transgender and other vulnerable populations, income inequality, climate change, racial profiling and homelessness, DiCicco said. Since news of Tyson’s death was announced, DiCicco said he has received many calls, texts and emails from grieving union members.
“Our members knew Bernard well because he made it a point to come to each of our annual union leadership conferences, and he insisted on taking unscreened questions from the floor, responding with candor and humor,” DiCicco said. “I believe he was the only major CEO in America to welcome open-ended, public questions from front-line union workers.”
Tyson is survived by his wife, media executive and entrepreneur Denise Bradley-Tyson, and three sons Bernard Jr., Alexander and Charles.
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 6:41 PM.
