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Rebuilding of Human Resources is Ongoing at Cook County Health

2/28/2023

Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
February 24, 2023

CCH Human Resources’ goal toward maximizing efficiency and decreasing the time in recruitment and hiring receives continuing support from outside consultants.

Slalom has taken the lead with HR by adding technology, department staff training and analyzing HR processes with a focus on efficiency.
Deloitte has reviewed job descriptions, undertaken compensation analysis, added technology focused on employees and revised new hire orientation. Deloitte’s job recruiters have reduced administrative burden.
Cross Country has organized monthly job fairs, helped with recruiting and has created marketing strategies and campaigns using Tik Tok, videos, fliers, and social media.
Brazen- has added virtual job fairs and a virtual hiring platform.

Human Resources Committee

FY2023 Year to Date through 1/31/2023, filled positions is 253, with 156 positions external hires. Most of the 127 separations were due to retirement. The time to fill from the day the job is posted to the day the offer is accepted is 120 days, which is a significant decline from FY2021.
CEO Rocha added that CCH is a great academic training center and staff gain great skills in their first to fifth year of employment and become very marketable. Once employees hit the 10 to 15 year employment, pensions and other benefits become important and they tend to stay at CCH. The retention of the 5 to 10 year employee is CCH’s focus.

Finance Committee

A contract extension and increase was approved for the The Chicago Lighthouse to be a backup for the patient support center to help with scheduling, registration and insurance verification assistance. The Chicago Lighthouse was founded in 1906 and provides jobs for the blind and visually impaired, disabled and Veteran communities.
Interim financials FY2023 ending Dec 31, 2023: On an accrual basis show that CCH ended December with a $37M favorable variance to budget. On a cash basis, the county’s preliminary cash report on revenues and expenses show a $49.7M favorable variance. CountyCare shows an operating gain of $6.1M.
GPO Presentation: A GPO is an organization that through a group’s collective buying power obtains better pricing and value for its members. Most of all health systems in America are GPO members contracting for medical/surgical supplies, drugs, food, purchased services, technologies, etc. CCH begins at the start of FY2023 to solicit proposals from vendors and after analysis and attending presentations decides on a GPO by 3/20/2023.

Managed Care Committee

As of February 7, 2023 CountyCare membership is 450,264 with 41,800 in CCH clinics. Through December 2022, CountyCare has a 32.6% share of Cook County managed Medicaid market. Membership is still high as Redetermination has not yet started. Once it starts April 1st membership numbers are expected to drop. CEO Rocha said a CCH goal is to assist members in the redetermination process.

Items of Interest

Cook County Dept Public Health Quarterly Report 2023 on the “Suburban Cook County Healthy Work Initiative”. This report highlighted the plight of essential workers especially during the pandemic. Another focus is precarious workers. These are low wage workers with unpredictable/unstable work conditions, work with hazards and without regulatory safety standards. The goal of this initiative is to improve worker safety and addressing these issues was highlighted.
CEO Rocha introduced the “One Source Enterprise” project to transform patient access and patient experience. After calling the Contact Center for non-emergency care needs, a caller can talk to a real person. The caller can receive virtual care through nurse triage, connection to a provider or referral to urgent care sites. A caller can also schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and ask other care questions. A limited 1st phase urgent care rollout will be spring 2023. Virtual RN positions at CCH are a competitive opportunity for nurses.

Observer - Michele Niccolai

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Cook County Health Board Approves Contracts for Continued Reliance on Agency Staffing and Consultants

2/2/2023

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Cook County Health Board of Directors Meeting
January 27, 2023

Board Action:

A $30M request was approved to increase existing contract with Vaya Workforce Solutions, LLC through 9/24/23 for agency nurse staffing to fill vacancies. The Chief Nursing Executive stated the hourly wage for agency nurses has decreased from slightly over $200 to currently $150 to $175 depending on the specialty needed. A dilemma was brought up by Board members regarding agency nurses vs employed staff nurses. Agency nurses go for the increased hourly wages, more control over their lives and younger nurses may not have a long term career view. Cook County Health (CCH) has advantages over agency nurses: CCH staff has good pension and other benefits for long term career plans. There are work rules, free tuition and many resources available. CEO Rocha added that closing the HR gap in hiring nursing staff is a major goal. Other goals are empowering the employee experience, commitment to continuing education, building flexible staffing pool options, adding employee councils and addressing work and life balance.
-Two contracts for a total of $32M were approved through 11/30/23 for temporary staffing. Positions include transporters, supervisors, Covid screeners, greeters, Lab personnel.
A 2M contract was approved to continue with Slalom Consulting through 7/19/23 for Human Resources.

New Cook County Health Board Members were approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners at their meeting on 1/26/2023. The new members are Tanya Sorrell, PhD, PMHNP-BC and Mia Webster Cross, MSN, RN. These new board members have replaced Mike Koetting and Dr Heather Prendergast

Committee Reports:

Finance Committee: On an accrual basis, interim financials show CCH ended November 30, 2022 with a $15.8M unfavorable variance to budget. On a cash basis, the County’s preliminary cash report on revenues and expenses shows a $366.4M favorable variance. This is due to the timing of how each records revenues and expenses. These are preliminary numbers as the FY2022 financials will be audited April 2023. CountyCare showed an operating gain of $11.5M. CCH’s More Care, Medicare Advantage Plan, was discontinued as of December 31, 2022 because of low membership and revenue loss.
Quality and Patient Safety Committee: Quality and Safety rating sites to check hospital and providers were mentioned that anyone can go to: medicare.gov/care-compare/ (star ratings) hospitalsafetygrade.org (Leapfrog hospital safety grade)
CountyCare: CountyCare membership as of January 5, 2023 was 449,565 with 9.3% using CCH clinics. This is an all time membership high, reflecting month over month growth since Medicaid redetermination has been paused. Redetermination, an annual review of Medicaid eligibility, will begin in April 2023. Renewal forms will be mailed to 1/12 of membership each month over the next year with CountyCare staff assisting members in this process. Membership losses would start to show up end of June and July 2023. The Board pointed out that continuation of care for those who will lose Medicaid is vital as conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and asthma can lead to major health costs down the road. In 2022, CountyCare developed reserves of $100M and plan to increase this to $150M in 2023. In 2022 CountyCare added over 100 urgent care sites providing an alternative to E.R. usage and housed 53 members in the Flexible Housing Pool Program and 14 members through the Community Transitions Initiative.
Human Resources: In FY2023 (Dec 1 to Dec 31, 2022), 119 positions were filled with 72 external hires. Internal hires (some are promotions) help with employee retention. 16 offers were declined and the #1 reason was salary. In FY2023 there were 90 separations, 73 were due to retirement. HR is hosting monthly job fairs and can now offer recruitment and retention bonuses.

CEO Rocha reported that CCH with support from the CCH Foundation has selected local artists to lead mural projects at three health system sites.

Observer: Michele Niccolai

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Rebuilding of Human Resources is Ongoing at Cook County Health

Cook County Health Board Approves Contracts for Continued Reliance on Agency Staffing and Consultants

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