Cook County Health Board Meetings

Cook County Health Board Of Directors Meeting
​March 22, 2024

Public testimony

• Michelle Gutierrez, Pres. California Nurses Assn, rep for CCH Nurses.  1200 nurses are owed back compensation, covering many years. Nurses worked overtime and extra shifts, supporting CCH through the pandemic and ongoing due to staffing shortages.  The CCHHS Board approved the payments in Oct 2023, but none have been made.  Delays occur in Human Resources, Finance and Payroll.  These “retro” payments are owed since Oct 2023 and “justice delayed is justice denied”.  

Board and Committee Reports

• Minutes of the Board and each committee were accepted and approved.  However, non-emergency medical transportation at an increased cost, not to exceed, $12 million, provoked Dr. Harrington to ask for customer survey data.

Report from Interim CEO, Erik Mikaitis, MD.

• Dr. Mikaitis reviewed the description of measles and emphasized the contagion risk of two hours for this airborne virus.  CCDPH is support partner at the new arrival shelters.  Vaccination rates for all new arrivals are very low.  All vaccinations are by appointment only but will examine and vaccinate walk-ins. Added availability of vaccination for measles to Covid Hotline.  1 case suspected in CCDPH jurisdiction.  50 doses of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination allotted for each Affordable Care Health Network clinic.   Thru February 2024 there were 60 measles cases reported for the US against 58 in all of 2023.  In Illinois 17 cases were reported 15 of those in Chicago
• $44 million in grants to be awarded for Behavioral Health. Proposals accepted until 17Apr2024, 5pm.    Source of funds was not identified. 
• First robotic surgery was performed at Stroger in March 2024, and Stroger is now a Certified Stroke Center providing 25/7 care.  It must also provide tele stroke and be able to deliver vagus nerve stimulation.  The goal is to achieve certification as a COMPREHENSIVE Stroke Center.  However, half of the staff neurologists left in last 12 months which limits ability to complete expansion of stroke services such as home infusion.   More funds and more doctors are needed to complete goals.            

Employment Plan Officer, Semi-Annual Report.  Kimberly Craft 

• The Employment Plan (EP) is a manual containing structured processes for hiring and other employment actions applied system-wide.  It prohibits discrimination, contains proactive and requires transparent processes and requires collective bargaining agreements to be honored. 
• The Employment Plan Office which is part of HR added 2 positions and is now staffed at 4.  Investigations were behind, but are catching up: Carryover 78 (closed 46, new 4, pending 46).
• Board member concerns:​ When asked if this evaluation system was automated, the response: loading & sharing is automated.  However automated in this context means that the information is online.  All review is a manual process.  Policy updates are pending

Managed Care, Aaron Galeener

• CountyCare enrollment is 32% of overall managed care enrollment 426,395/1,319,686 through Dec2023.  Lower enrollment over 2022 is following all of managed care; main cause is redetermination.
• Actual enrollment in 2024 is 20-30% ahead of budget projections
• Call volume Dec-41,586; Jan-54,936; Feb-53,682
• 2024 acute admits much lower than 2023
• Percentage of claims paid in 30 days is returning to pre-pandemic levels

Human Resources Committee, Carrie Pramuk-Volk.

• Positions filled: 70% of offers made is 281 YTD, (57 net new hires); Overall time to fill 195 positions was 126 days.
• Accelerated nurse hiring during Aug2023-Feb2024 411 offers: 231 accepted (56%), 30 pending, 150 declined.
• completed an examination of the duration of the hiring timeline for one role: 85 days on average, 167 of external hire and 64 for internal against a goal of 45 days.

Quality & Patient Safety Committee Meeting
March 7, 2024

• OpEx dashboard expanded to include monthly scores As requested by the committee last meeting, the new rolling dashboard now includes monthly data. Last month Chair Bhatt requested that future updates include information on the actions being taken and timeline for improvement. This was referenced this month but actions being taken and timelines were not presented.
• For Stroger hospital, with the exception of the readmission rate of the same hospital the data did not show much improvement.
• For Provident, patient experience improved but clinical outcomes (hand hygiene and "left without being seen" rate are trending in the wrong direction)

Observer:  Victoria Cerinich