Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting January 18, 2024 Tom Nutter MD, CCH Chief Behavioral Health Officer, talked about the newly formed CCH Office of Behavioral Health (BH) and the upcoming Cook County (CC) Behavioral Health Summit on February 15, 2024. Invitations have been extended county-wide to mental health and addiction disorder colleagues to convene together. The emphasis will be listening sessions from all stakeholders to get feedback on issues such as inequities in BH care, the need for improved BH care and need for increased access to BH care. This summit will help to develop a CC Behavioral Health Strategic Plan. There will be upcoming community-based funding opportunities from CC government because of the American Rescue Plan. The Summit’s listening sessions will also help with guidance for awarding future Behavioral Health grants. March 6, 2024 will be the date to submit requests for grant funding proposals. The CCH Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding to be a member of the new corporation, West Side United Not-For-Profit. Launched in 2018, West Side United is an organization initiated by West Side Health Care Institutions (including CCH), whose main goal is to close the life expectancy gap in the west side diverse neighborhoods of Chicago where there is a high level of poverty. People in these neighborhoods experience barriers to health and wellness because of education inequities, employment, access to healthy food, safe housing, violence, transportation issues and access to banking. The founding West Side Health Care Institutions determined that a not-for-profit corporation was needed. The CCH’s Patient Bill of Rights & Responsibilities document includes the right to provide “interpreter services, free of charge, including sign language” and information written in other languages. Two contracts were extended by board approval for phone interpretation, document translation and interpreting services by video remote. Observed by Michele Niccolai
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Cook County Health Human Resources Report Indicates Employment Metrics Continue To Improve11/4/2023 Cook County Health Board of Directors Meeting
October 27, 2023 Virtual and in person meeting- observed virtually Human Resources Committee Report Carrie Pramuk-Volk, now the Interim Chief Human Resources Officer, reported on the continued positive hiring and retention metrics. For fiscal year 2023 there have been 1146 hires who have started. In 2022 there were 497 and in 2021 there were 562. Turnover rate continues to drop from a high of 11.4% in 2022 to the current rate of 8.4%, which is well under the national benchmark. The accelerated nursing hiring program has resulted in 195 job offers with 120 of them being accepted. Cook County Department of Public Health Report Amy O’Rourke and Dr Hasbrouk from Cook County Department of Public Health reported on the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP). The GFPP was started to address food disparity in health and wealth. Cook County is the third local government to sign on to this program. Los Angeles did in 2012, Chicago in 2017 and Cook County in 2018. Currently there are 57 institutions and 24 cities participating nationally. GFPP encourages County-run institutions to shift their food spend toward five core values: local, healthy, humane, sustainable, and equitably-produced food. GFPP implementation is underway and initial investments have been made in local food producers. The 2023 Good Food Purchasing Initiative (GFPI) Community Fund awardees will be announced by the beginning of FY24. The 19th Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit will be held in early FY24. GFPP Program Update
Other Committee Reports: The Audit and Compliance, Finance, Managed Care, QPC committees met in October and their minutes were approved with minimal discussion. The CEO reported on the strategic initiative results and the numerous awards won by employees. The meeting went into closed session and reconvened on October 31 to give the news that CEO Rocha has resigned as of Dec 1, 2023. Items to Watch for in the Future: New CEO search Observed By: Lisa Slankard Cook County Health (CCH) Board Meeting
July 28, 2023 Four CCH nurses spoke during the public comment period and talked about the continued staffing shortage, its impact on staff safety, and the time it takes to onboard even agency hires. Several board members asked pointed questions during the presentation from HR Director, Valerie Amos. Questions included:
CEO Rocha commented on staff shortage by saying that there is a higher-than-expected patient onboarding. That and summer vacations led to even more agency hires. A question was asked about planning for System retirements as the average age of nurses is 51. Amos acknowledged the challenges facing the system and thanked the board for approving increased staffing. She started with 3 recruiters and now has 10 plus outside consultants to help streamline the process. Plus the retention bonus that went to 58% of the nursing staff helped keep turnover down this year. The System expects the recently approved 12 week paid parental leave to benefit recruitment of nurses and other staff. The Cook Couty Department of Public Health reported on their 3rd quarter report that focused on the Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Program and the Youth Tobacco Ordinance Awareness Program. Key points highlighted in the STI's Program:
Compliance with the Youth Tobacco Ordinance This fall in partnership with the CC Sheriff’s Office, the CC Department of Public Health will conduct random, inspections at locations where tobacco products are sold in unincorporated CC to ensure compliance with the sales restriction on Flavored Nicotine Products. These restrictions went into effect on July 23, 2023. In CEO Rocha’s monthly report, he noted a $21 million dollar grant for nursing, several awards, upcoming events, and focused on CCH’s Dialysis Success with the goal to move the conversation from kidney disease to kidney health. The head Nephrologist stated that race is no longer considered a factor. Weight and gender are the primary factors. Observer: Diane Edmundson 2023-25 Cook County Department of Public Health Strategic Plan Presented to Cook County Health Board5/1/2023 Cook County Health (CCH) Board of Directors Meeting
April 28, 2023 CEO Rocha, Chief Operating Officer, Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck and staff presented the Cook County Department of Public Health’s (CCDPH) product from a collaborative and participatory strategic planning effort begun in 2022. The resulting 2023-2025 strategic plan for CCDPH, “Putting the Public in Public Health,” defines CCDPH’s vision, mission, and values. Based on feedback from across a variety of assessments and many facilitated planning sessions and conversations with staff, community partners, and the Strategic Planning Advisory Group, CCDPH identified five strategic pillars where CCDPH must focus its attention to be successful at advancing its vision and mission over the next three years. The foundational pillars are:
CEO Rocha noted that effective Monday, May 15th masks will be strongly recommended but optional for many patients, visitors and staff. Masks will remain a requirement for staff providing direct patient care, entering an occupied patient room or in high-risk areas. Tests and vaccines for COVID will continue to be available at primary care medical homes. The Community Murals Project unveiled three new murals at Provident Hospital, Blue Island Health Center and the Professional Building on central campus. Paint parties were held where patients, staff and visitors came together to paint sections of the murals. Committee Reports: Human Resources –
What to Watch for in the Future:
Observer - Peg Moster 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.
Human Resources Committee
Finance Committee
Managed Care Committee
Items of Interest
Observer - Michele Niccolai Cook County Health Board of Directors Meeting
September 30, 2022 KImberly Craft gave the semiannual EPO (Employment Plan Officer) report. As with other departments she had staffing issues which made it difficult to monitor the plan. A new Program Manager and Information Coordinator have recently been hired. There were an unusually large number of vacancies during the reporting period. The hiring process was revised and a new plan was rolled out in July. There were a number of hiring problems found. Part of the problem was in coordinating plan rules with the outside vendors. The 22-page report is informative and detailed. CountyCare's 10th anniversary was celebrated. Cook County Health’s emergency medicine and preventive medicine residency programs were recognized in Becker’s Hospital Review for being among the best clinical training programs, according to Doximity’s 2022-2023 Residency Navigator. Cook County Public Health has sent out a survey to collect data from 34,000 adult (18 and older) suburban Cook County residents concerning their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and access to health care. Using startup funds from CDC’s Health Equity Grant, CCDPH’s Epidemiology Unit is collaborating with UIC’s PHAME Center and Metopio to design and deploy an online atlas for exploring and sharing health information concerning the suburban residents of Cook County. The atlas allows stakeholders to examine, visualize and download health data using maps, charts and tables. The site is at https://cookcountyhealthatlas.org/ Iliana Mora, Chief Administrative officer for Ambulatory Services reported on the Asylum seekers that were bussed to Cook County from Texas. All seekers were seen by medical staff promptly and screened for disease and vaccinated. Children received all vaccines needed to attend school. Ambulatory staff handled everything, but additional help is needed if this is to be a continuing need. Contracted staff will be onboard next month. Money was allocated for this but CCH is working with state and federal agencies for reimbursement. An overview of the Substance-Use Disorder program was presented by Dr. Juleigh Nowinski Konchak. It is a Multidisciplinary and Patient-centered plan. An overview on Monkeypox was presented by Dr LaMar Hasbrouk (CEO of Cook County Department of Public Health). Human Resources: While there is still a lot of work to be done to get staffing levels up, there has been a slight improvement and several vendor agencies have been contracted to help with the process. Slalom Program Management will ensure the vendor resources are allocated effectively to accelerate hiring. The other HR partners are:
Managed Care: CountyCare’s enrollment has increased 7% over the past 12 months, ahead of the Cook County increase of 4%. CountyCare’s enrollment decreased 0.1% in July 2022 compared to the prior month, ahead of the Cook County decrease of -0.2%. The vaccination rate of CountyCare members is still too low, especially among children. Only 21.78% of children 1-11 years are fully vaccinated. And only 45.2% of all members are fully vaccinated. Quality and Patient Safety: Committee minutes were presented. Dr. Erik Mikaitis was hired as Chief Quality Officer. The readmission rate was down to 7.49% in May, the lowest it has been in the last year and well below the goal of 9.93%. The case mix index for surgical patients, the top box score and the HbA1C goal were not achieved. Finance: The finance committee met this month. On an accrual basis, interim financials show that CCH ended May with a $13.4M positive variance to budget. On a cash basis, the County’s preliminary cash report on revenues and expenses shows a $300.2M positive variance primarily due to the timing difference of CountyCare PMPM payments impacting the revenue and claims payments impacting expenses. Recognitions:
There was no public speaker testimony and no closed session this month. Observer: Lisa Slankard |
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