Cook County Health Board of Directors Meeting
September 30, 2022 KImberly Craft gave the semiannual EPO (Employment Plan Officer) report. As with other departments she had staffing issues which made it difficult to monitor the plan. A new Program Manager and Information Coordinator have recently been hired. There were an unusually large number of vacancies during the reporting period. The hiring process was revised and a new plan was rolled out in July. There were a number of hiring problems found. Part of the problem was in coordinating plan rules with the outside vendors. The 22-page report is informative and detailed. CountyCare's 10th anniversary was celebrated. Cook County Health’s emergency medicine and preventive medicine residency programs were recognized in Becker’s Hospital Review for being among the best clinical training programs, according to Doximity’s 2022-2023 Residency Navigator. Cook County Public Health has sent out a survey to collect data from 34,000 adult (18 and older) suburban Cook County residents concerning their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and access to health care. Using startup funds from CDC’s Health Equity Grant, CCDPH’s Epidemiology Unit is collaborating with UIC’s PHAME Center and Metopio to design and deploy an online atlas for exploring and sharing health information concerning the suburban residents of Cook County. The atlas allows stakeholders to examine, visualize and download health data using maps, charts and tables. The site is at https://cookcountyhealthatlas.org/ Iliana Mora, Chief Administrative officer for Ambulatory Services reported on the Asylum seekers that were bussed to Cook County from Texas. All seekers were seen by medical staff promptly and screened for disease and vaccinated. Children received all vaccines needed to attend school. Ambulatory staff handled everything, but additional help is needed if this is to be a continuing need. Contracted staff will be onboard next month. Money was allocated for this but CCH is working with state and federal agencies for reimbursement. An overview of the Substance-Use Disorder program was presented by Dr. Juleigh Nowinski Konchak. It is a Multidisciplinary and Patient-centered plan. An overview on Monkeypox was presented by Dr LaMar Hasbrouk (CEO of Cook County Department of Public Health). Human Resources: While there is still a lot of work to be done to get staffing levels up, there has been a slight improvement and several vendor agencies have been contracted to help with the process. Slalom Program Management will ensure the vendor resources are allocated effectively to accelerate hiring. The other HR partners are:
Managed Care: CountyCare’s enrollment has increased 7% over the past 12 months, ahead of the Cook County increase of 4%. CountyCare’s enrollment decreased 0.1% in July 2022 compared to the prior month, ahead of the Cook County decrease of -0.2%. The vaccination rate of CountyCare members is still too low, especially among children. Only 21.78% of children 1-11 years are fully vaccinated. And only 45.2% of all members are fully vaccinated. Quality and Patient Safety: Committee minutes were presented. Dr. Erik Mikaitis was hired as Chief Quality Officer. The readmission rate was down to 7.49% in May, the lowest it has been in the last year and well below the goal of 9.93%. The case mix index for surgical patients, the top box score and the HbA1C goal were not achieved. Finance: The finance committee met this month. On an accrual basis, interim financials show that CCH ended May with a $13.4M positive variance to budget. On a cash basis, the County’s preliminary cash report on revenues and expenses shows a $300.2M positive variance primarily due to the timing difference of CountyCare PMPM payments impacting the revenue and claims payments impacting expenses. Recognitions:
There was no public speaker testimony and no closed session this month. Observer: Lisa Slankard
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Cook County Health (CCH) Board Of Directors Meeting
July 22, 2022 Human Resources Report: Currently Stroger Hospital is operating with a staff level of 65% of budget. This has led to adding $75 million to the outside staffing budget for the remainder of the fiscal year and has had some effect on Quality metrics. It also has led to increased resignations of existing staff. The Human Resource committee presented their statistics and the current hiring is barely keeping up with the staff losses and not helping make up for past separations. Before starting the new goal of hiring 400 new employees between 5/16 and 9/1, it has taken 36.8 days on average from the time an offer has been requested to the offer being made to the applicant. 450 offers were made and 317 were hired. The ultimate goal has been to cut the 36.8 days to THREE days. From May 16 to July 22, 220 candidates accepted offers. Since 94 were internal hires, the net result was 126 new employees. The hiring initiatives are as follows:
Appointments/Recognitions:
Public Health Update:
Committee Reports:
Observer: Lisa Slankard Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
May 27, 2022 During Public Comments, eight nurses and nurse representatives reacted to the Cook County Commissioners 10% pay raise approved by the CC Board earlier in May. The comments were pointed and the tone angry. For two months nurses have been asking for a $5.00 per hour increase as Retention Compensation for their work and their loyalty over the past two years of the COVID pandemic, noting that the System is hiring contract nurses at much higher pay. They are also unhappy that they must use personal sick pay for personal COVID absences. Having been discussed at several previous meetings, the proposed 2023-25 Strategic Plan was approved by the board with little comment. The Theme for the next three years is: Impact, Change, Equity. Strategic Planning Officer, Andrea Gibson, noted that the data table will now include the years 2019-21 and also stated that Disability Access has been moved to a higher priority based upon public feedback. With approval, the next steps include developing detailed work plans and integrating them into a three-year budget. Chair Taylor commended the process and said it is a very good framework to deliver quality care over the next three years. Committee Reports:
Observer: Diane Edmundson Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
June 24, 2022 Board Report Highlights:
Human Resources Report:
Managed Care Report:
Observer: Gwendolyn Maxie-Brown Cook County Health (CCH) Board Meeting
March 25, 2022 Enrolled in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), since 2014, Stroger is now winning big for patients by decreasing surgical site infection rate from 1.5 times the national (NSQIP) average in 2016 to 0.77 of the rate in 2022! Annual Stroger savings of $237,210 with avoidance of prolonged hospital & ICU stay and even death of patients who suffer from post-op wound infections is the bonus. Accomplished by implementation of rigorous procedures for disinfection of skin prior to surgery, additional pre and post-op antibiotics, changes of gowns, gloves and instruments twice: for surgery and again for wound closure and patient education were key elements of this successful plan. Surgeon Wille notes that this is an ongoing process, with direct comparisons of outcomes to other hospitals nationally on the numerous targets of enhanced quality with decreased cost that are being studied. Initially there was skepticism of the program Dr. Fegan, Chief Medical Officer, at CCH commented but the successes are now making believers of surgeons from all CCH specialties. CCH’s low rate of surgical morbidity/complications for its patients places it in the top 20% of all NSQIP hospitals for 2021. Highlights from Board Reports:
Items to Watch for in the Future:
Observer - Susan Kern, MD Cook County Health (CCH) Board Meeting
February 25, 2022 The timeline for the FY23-FY25 Strategic Plan introduced
Finance Committee
Managed Care Committee
Human Resources Committee
Quality and Patient Safety Committee
Observed by: Michele Niccolai |
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