Cook County Health Board Meets

Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
April 30,2021

What did the Board decide:

• The Core Foundation property that was being leased by the County for The Ruth M. Rothstein Core Center for the treatment of infectious diseases will now be owned by the County as the lease has been terminated 6 years early..

Committee Reports:

• Human Resources - no meeting this month. Hiring continues. There is an increase in unfilled open positions. Even though more people have been hired than last year, more separations were reported and more positions were created due to grants received. Most of the openings are in nursing.
• Managed Care- CountyCare membership continues to increase. Up 1.4% over February for a total of 395,477 members. Plan Initiatives activity was presented. The Finance Initiative goal is to reduce cost by 50 million dollars.  Member Experience Initiative reported that over 5.1 million text messages were sent to members.
• Quality and Patient Safety- The 30 day readmission rate is up to 9.81% against a goal of 8.56%. 10% of readmissions were from Covid hospitalizations for a variety of reasons. The goal was met for surgical clinical documentation but not medical. Top Box score had a slight improvement and Communication with nurses and cleanliness had the highest percentile rank for Stroger.  The lead person on JCAHO left the organization.
• Finance- $5.5M  grants received for Covid vaccines. On an accrual basis CCH is ending February $12.1M ahead of budget. Net patient service revenue was better than expected  - lower than expected volumes, more than offset by better rate and payer mix. CountyCare capitation significantly higher than expected.

Board Chair Hammock Report

• A Foundation Gala will be held on October 28, 2021 in the old Post Office building to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Foundation.

CEO Rocha Report

• The Daisy Award was given to Anu Thomas RN.
• Covid testing statistics were presented.
• There are 725 detainees awaiting transfer to IDOC. They must be fully vaccinated prior to transfer. This is the highest priority right now.
• 80% of CCH Staff  and 62% of CCH employees  have  been vaccinated.  Statistics on the breakdown of vaccinated employees by age, race, job category, union membership  and race/ethnicity were provided.
• A review of COVID vaccination activities was presented. In addition to marketing efforts, significant outreach and special events are planned for mass vaccination sites including: • Restaurant Worker Day Monday, May 3 • Mother’s Day Promotion at all sites Saturday, May 8 • Partnership with Chicago Medical Society physicians to refer patients • Efforts to encourage college students at schools where vaccines will be mandatory not to wait to get their vaccine until the Fall.  
• The My Shot outreach program is moving to phase 2 and targets 18-34 year olds. This is a change from a campaign for access to a campaign for advocacy and access.
• There has been a huge surge in CCH social media reach.
• The Leapfrog score (a hospital rating score) is up to a D. The CMS score is now 2 stars. This is from 2019 data. While this is still not good it is an improvement.

Items to Watch for in the Future:

• Covid rates and vaccination data.
• Financial situation of CCH

Observer - Lisa Slankard                                       Meeting Length:    2.5 hr