Hospital Board Requests Job Coding Changes and a Review of the Exit Interview Process

Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) Annual Board Meeting
June 29, 2018

The CCHHS Board requested that Human Resources properly designate positions with a unique job code if the job requires bi-lingual skills. These positions would be more highly compensated due to the requirement for these skills. It is felt that filling these positions appropriately would increase the cultural competency of staff along with ensuring proper care for patients. It was indicated that a bi-lingual worker would be especially helpful in working with many Out Patients. The Board also requested that Human Resources review the process for exit interviews with Department heads’ as there is currently a lack of helpful information being received.

Other Committee Actions or Discussions:

• Managed Care Committee-Increase of membership from 331,000 to 338,326. Board wanted a breakdown of the membership and the number of people who would be aging out of Medicaid.
• Quality and Patient Safety Committee-Discussed the 2018 proposed plan. Board talked about their concern about maternal deaths and the reasons behind them along with how to increase the number of woman who chose to give birth within the system.
• Audit/Compliance Committee-Fraud/waste/abuse have maintained from last year. New contract requires there to be one investigator per 100,000 members so with our 338,000 plus members, we will need 4 investigators. The issue of revenue recovery will continue to be a major issue for the system and the results from the systems in place and those being put into place will be closely monitored. Board Chairman Hill Hammock and CEO Jay Shannon presented these revenue recovery strategies to Cook County Board at a hearing on June 5.

Other Data Presented to the Board:
As part of the Cook County Department of Public Health 3rd quarter report, an update was given on current TB Prevention efforts. It has been found that those most affected with the disease live in the suburbs and 70% are foreign born and have been living in the United States for 5 or more years. The city of Des Plaines in the Northwest suburbs is the most infected area. There has been no direct correlation between TB and Poverty Rates.The current treatment is provided by nurses as part of a program called Directly Observed Therapy (DOT}. This program provides for a new treatment that takes 12 weeks instead of the old method that averaged 6 months. Each patient is assigned to a nurse who assumes responsibility for ensuring each of their patients takes their medication. This means these nurses are driving around the county doing DOT on a daily basis. 

Observers - Bill Edmundson and Jackie Buttafuoco                     Meeting Length: 3 hours