CCHHS Board Meeting - July 16, 2009
This meeting marked the 1 year Anniversary of the CCHHS Board. The board reelected Mr. Batts as Chairman and Mr. Ramirez as Vice Chairman for the next year. Mr. Batts stated that all committee assignments and chairpersons would remain the same.
Mr. Foley, System CEO, introduced his new leadership team which includes a new CFO, Chief Clinical Officer, COO, Performance Improvement Specialist, Director of Human Relations and Director of Public Relations from outside of Cook County. He also introduced a Special Asst., General Counsel, and Stroger CFO who come from within Cook County. From his 90 Day Goals that the Board was reviewing Mr. Foley highlighted the data collection aspect which he said should be completed by the end of September, which will then provide the institution with a strong data set for determining goals and outcomes going forward. He also stated that there was a revised Organizational Chart included in their packet. Mr. Foley was commended for pulling together a strong leadership team within a relatively short time frame.
Personnel Rules were approved that will provide the general framework for the development of policies and procedures for Human Resources. They were compiled from 2 existing sets of rules. Yet to be finalized are the Patient Financial Accounting Policies which will address who the system serves and how identification/residency will be verified.
A $30,000,000.00 Master Lease agreement with Bank of America was authorized for execution and now goes to the CC Board of Commissioners for approval. This agreement is intended to be used for necessary equipment that will not be covered by the bonds issued by Cook County.
An update on the Illinois budget revealed that as of July 15 the County had not received $12m in medicaid funds. Since the budget has been approved and the Intergovernmental Transfer Bill has been signed it is expected that those funds will be forthcoming. The Core Center stated that they have received $3.5m from the state capital bill for refurbishing their facility. After some discussion of various programs that were losing or in jeopardy of losing grant funding a request was made that the board get a listing of all grant monies within the system and what funds could possibly be in jeopardy.
Ms. Duffy, Director of Purchasing, gave an update on the progress she has made within her department. They have a goal of Aug. 1 for the system to take over the purchasing and contract compliance function from the county. She thinks the goal will be reached although there are still some issues.
There was discussion several times during the meeting of an ordinance, dealing with county procurement policies, that is being introduced by Comm. Moldanado at the next CC Board meeting. The HHS Board members wanted to know if the ordinance would impact their contract with a Group Purchasing Organization. The State's Attorney representative stated that the way the ordinance is currently written it should have no impact. The HHS Board approved a resolution that expressed their opposition to any action that would impact their ability to contract with a GPO.
The Strategic Planning Committee stated that their Town Hall Meetings will begin soon, and they also will be meeting with the Commissioners as part of their process.
The meeting began and ended with closed sessions to discuss personnel and litigation issues.
Cynthia Schilsky, LWVCC Observer
