Humans of UNAC/UHCP: Jacky Ponce, Case Manager Specialist
I put in my hours here at Maui Memorial. I was a single parent. I needed to work. I’ve given 20 years of my life here. It hasn’t been easy, but I love working here. I love helping the patients and my coworkers. We’re one big ohana. I enjoy what I do, otherwise I would not have been here this long. You need to have aloha to work here. Aloha is like showing love, always helping, giving back.
“I put in my hours here at Maui Memorial. I was a single parent. I needed to work. I’ve given 20 years of my life here. It hasn’t been easy, but I love working here. I love helping the patients and my coworkers. We’re one big ohana. I enjoy what I do, otherwise I would not have been here this long. You need to have aloha to work here. Aloha is like showing love, always helping, giving back.
“When Kaiser bought Maui Health in 2017, management promised a lot of things. They promised us better staffing, better pay, better benefits. Seven years in, and we still haven’t seen it. We’re still fighting for better wages. It’s upsetting that they treat us like second-class people here. Now, it’s all broken promises.
“I was in the Admitting Department for 18- and- a- half- years, as a clerk, before I moved to Case Management. I never thought I would move somewhere and learn something completely new. I don’t get to talk to the patients like I used to, but I’m helping them on the back end by making sure that their bills get paid by insurance. That’s important too.
“My plan after high school in Maui was to move away. I was a party animal. I got pregnant. I still partied. I was naughty growing up, trust me. I had my parents running. I did all kinds of stuff, cut classes, made up my own schedule, but my parents took care of me and my daughter. Then, one day I finally said, I’m done partying. I’ve got to work and make my own money. So that’s what I did. I would work 16-hour shifts, back-to-back. In some ways, I lost all those years because all I did was work.
“Now I see how Kaiser is treating us, paying us less than staff at their other Hawaii facilities. I hope that Kaiser recognizes us as one of them and treats us the same.”
– Jacky Ponce, Case Manager Specialist, Maui Health/Kaiser