Cook County Health Board Meeting

Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
April 26, 2024
Attendance: Lyndon Taylor, Dennis Deer, Jay Bhatt, Robert Currie, Raul Garza, Joseph Harrington, Robert Reiter, Sam Robinson, and Tanya Sorrell. Absent: Mia Webster Cross

​Public Testimony: There were 6 written statements submitted that focused on inequity in pay scale for RN’s working in public health and concern that recruiting and hiring of RN’s has not been effective and increased work loads of Health System staff nurses. One nurse spoke at the meeting focusing on these related concerns. 
Finance Committee: Approved a new contract funded by the Cook County Equity Fund at $1,050,000 00 for CCDPH to advance policy and systems changes that support the work of the Suburban Cook County Worker Protection Program.  Several other large contracts were approved to provide staffing services.

Action items:

• Report from Interim Chief Executive Officer
  • HR Report: Continue with 3 vendors working with Human Resources:
    • Slalom contract ends July 24 main focus was creating dashboards, modernized on line presences and access to real time recruitment and digital job description library. 
      • Director asked question what was the cost total cost per hire over 2023. Interim Director will get back with the answer.  
      • Discussion focused by Commissioners that the vacancy of 1700 is almost the same as FY22 and questions around what progress we have made in light of the dollars spent on consultants.  
    • Deloitte contract ends April 24 (pending) helped modernize orientation plan for new employees, pipeline learning development and benchmarked jobs identified as not competitive. A transition plan has been created. 
      • Discussion: HR now creating an RFP for building on work Deloitte started over this last year and half. Still don’t have HR staffing to follow up with work done by Deloitte. 
    • Cross Country contract ends Jan 2025. Helped hire fair support, modernized recruiting and piloting accelerated hiring process. 
• Report on Robotic Surgery Launch: March 8th first robotic surgery done at Stroger and now total 48 cases completed. 
• The Audit and Compliance Committee minutes were approved which included the approval of the 2024 CountyCare Compliance Plan, the CountyCare Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Plan, and the Internal Audit Charter
• Report from Cook County Department of Public Health on their tobacco prevention program and associated social media outreach.  This program is funded through State dollars and has established a tobacco free coalition. 

Observer: Susan Avila