Rebuilding of Human Resources is Ongoing at Cook County Health

Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
February 24, 2023

CCH Human Resources’ goal toward maximizing efficiency and decreasing the time in recruitment and hiring receives continuing support from outside consultants.

• Slalom has taken the lead with HR by adding technology, department staff training and analyzing HR processes with a focus on efficiency.
• Deloitte has reviewed job descriptions, undertaken compensation analysis, added technology focused on employees and revised new hire orientation.  Deloitte’s job recruiters have reduced administrative burden.
• Cross Country has organized monthly job fairs, helped with recruiting and has created marketing strategies and campaigns using Tik Tok, videos, fliers, and social media.
• Brazen- has added virtual job fairs and a virtual hiring platform.

Human Resources Committee

• FY2023 Year to Date through 1/31/2023, filled positions is 253, with 156 positions external hires.  Most of the 127 separations were due to retirement.  The time to fill from the day the job is posted to the day the offer is accepted is 120 days, which is a significant decline from FY2021. 
  
• CEO Rocha added that CCH is a great academic training center and staff gain great skills in their first to fifth year of employment and become very marketable.  Once employees hit the 10 to 15 year employment, pensions and other benefits become important and they tend to stay at CCH.  The retention of the 5 to 10 year employee is CCH’s focus.

Finance Committee

• A contract extension and increase was approved for the The Chicago Lighthouse to be a backup for the patient support center to help with scheduling, registration and insurance verification assistance.  The Chicago Lighthouse was founded in 1906 and provides jobs for the blind and visually impaired, disabled and Veteran communities.
• Interim financials FY2023 ending Dec 31, 2023: On an accrual basis show that CCH ended December with a $37M favorable variance to budget.  On a cash basis, the county’s preliminary cash report on revenues and expenses show a $49.7M favorable variance.  CountyCare shows an operating gain of $6.1M.
• GPO Presentation: A GPO is an organization that through a group’s collective buying power obtains better pricing and value for its members.  Most of all health systems in America are GPO members contracting for medical/surgical supplies, drugs, food, purchased services, technologies, etc.  CCH begins at the start of FY2023 to solicit proposals from vendors and after analysis and attending presentations decides on a GPO by 3/20/2023.

Managed Care Committee

• As of February 7, 2023 CountyCare membership is 450,264 with 41,800 in CCH clinics.  Through December 2022, CountyCare has a 32.6% share of Cook County managed Medicaid market.  Membership is still high as Redetermination has not yet started.  Once it starts April 1st membership numbers are expected to drop. CEO Rocha said a CCH goal is to assist members in the redetermination process.

Items of Interest

• Cook County Dept Public Health Quarterly Report 2023 on the “Suburban Cook County Healthy Work Initiative”.  This report highlighted the plight of essential workers especially during the pandemic.  Another focus is precarious workers.  These are low wage workers with unpredictable/unstable work conditions, work with hazards and without regulatory safety standards.  The goal of this initiative is to improve worker safety and addressing these issues was highlighted.
• CEO Rocha introduced the “One Source Enterprise” project to transform patient access and patient experience.  After calling the Contact Center for non-emergency care needs, a caller can talk to a real person.  The caller can receive  virtual care through nurse triage, connection to  a provider or referral to urgent care sites.  A caller can also  schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and ask other care questions.  A limited 1st phase urgent care rollout will be spring 2023.  Virtual RN positions at CCH are a competitive opportunity for nurses. 

Observer - Michele Niccolai