CCHHS Strategic Plan to be Finalized at Special Board Meeting on July 11

Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board - June 24, 2016

Significant Topic Discussed:
Strategic Plan Update:

• A final draft of the Strategic Plan overview will be available for public comment on July 15 and is 
• slated for adoption at the regular Board meeting on July 29.  
• A 2017 budget, expected in late August, will be derived from the Plan.
• Directors expressed different views on the limits of the population that CCHHS should serve, ranging from “access to all” to “not encouraging persons from outside Cook County to come and receive care at the expense of the Cook County taxpayers, except emergencies under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)”.
  

The Board discussed a preliminary draft of the plan, not available to observers, which centered on key Goals and Focus Areas.  
Goals:

1. Improve health care equity
2. Provide high quality, safe and reliable care
3. Demonstrate value and adopt performance benchmarking
4. Develop human capital
5. Lead medical education and clinical investigation

Focus Areas:

1. ​Increasing competitiveness with other hospitals
2. Expanding coverage to jail detainees via state policy changes
3. ​Fostering fiscal stewardship by maximizing reimbursement through provider capturing all possible disease codes
4. Incentivizing physicians to practice efficiently and more cost-effectively
5. Hiring the best employees and holding the medical leadership accountable for resident/medical student training that promotes a quality educational experience
6. Evaluating clinical effectiveness using relevant analytics and benchmarking
7. Advocating for patients that are marginalized, uninsured or justice-involve 

Other Topics Discussed:

• Quality Metrics for both Stroger and Provident Hospital: OR start time, willingness to recommend, continue to show no improvement this month with cleanliness, long wait times and poor staff communication most frequently cited by patients.
  
• Board voted to negotiate and execute an Agreement between CCHHS, Duke University Clinical Research Institute and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute which would allow Cook County to join a national network of patient centered research clinical trials.  In furtherance of the Strategic Plan Goal to lead clinical investigation, this new agreement aligns with the partnering of CCHHS earlier this year with all major academic medical centers in the Chicago region, and the VA.  Initial projects are to evaluate patients who had asthma, sickle cell anemia and recurrent intestinal infection with Clostridium difficile.

Observer -  Susan Kern, MD     Meeting Length - 3 hours 15 minutes