CCH Human Resources Committee Meeting

Cook County Health Board of Directors
Human Resources Committee
Feb. 15, 2024 

Oral testimony:   

Angelica Moore (Family Nurse Practitioner in Burn Unit since fall 2023)

• Scheduled shifts denied w/o notice create unsafe working conditions & negative impact on patient care.  
• Nurses, such as speaker, are not allowed to pick up overtime shifts.  Request changes.

Brenda Langford [National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) Bd Mbr] 

• Slow implementation of negotiated pay rises due to lack of staff in Finance & Payroll.
• Denial of overtime to employee nurses.
• Submitted copy of her statement.

Written testimony: 

• NNOC submitted separate written statement, included with Board packet, but not displayed on video.

Committee Agenda::
Interim Chief HR Officer presented report on employee census (with details on nursing) for 2023 and projections for 2024.

• Filled overall in 2023 - 179 positions
• External Hires in 2023 - 132 Positions
• Net new Hires Trending up - 291 Positions
  

Accelerated hiring of Nursing positions - Firm contracted for 08/07/2023-08/06/2024
08/07/2023-01/31/2024

• Offers made in first six months  - 365
  
• Accepted external (Cmte asked @ categories) - 143
• Accepted internal (Cmte asked @ categories) - 61
• Pending - 21
• Rejected (Cmte asked why? Many rejected     due to shift offered; Answers next meeting) - 140

HR contract ended on 02/06/2024 extension for six months was requested and granted evidently externally to this meeting.  HR Interim Chief wants to tweak contract, (detect vacancies earlier & start hiring process before shortage is critical) review again in three months and make permanent if success continues.
Items to watch for in the Future:  

• Nurse hiring and retention (including retired vs resigned) reports and answers to Cmte’s questions.
• Examination of nurse retention by “Prime Vision to Practice”.  New nurses have clear goals for their professional future; i.e.: in two years!  These goals must be identified and addressed.
• Cook County Learning Institute is up & running.  New curriculum for 2024 is based on surveys from all levels of staff and exit information.  Invited are:  All managers, staff, Teams, Affiliates and Departments. 

Cmte expressed great satisfaction with HR data, yet public comments revealed disquiet among nurses.

What items prompted the most discussion?

• Cmte members prefer and requested graphic style presentations, such as “Tableau”.
• Cmte wants automation of HR data versus manual tracking to continue, but questioned cost/benefit of external vendor versus in-house.  Vendor “Slalom” starting in two weeks. 

 
Virtual Observer - Victoria L Cerinich