The proposed budget for the Health and Hospitals Systems (HHS) was previously presented to the Commissioners in September so this meeting was an opportunity to again question CEO, Mr. Foley and the Independent Board President Mr. Batts about the proposed budget. The CCHHS Board is also in the midst of holding public hearings concerning their proposed Strategic Plan for the System so there were questions also about the plan. The President’s proposed budget for HHS is $968.5m. When asked if they would be able to cut their budget if the sales tax was decreased Mr. Foley stated that his management team is working with the CCHHS Board to identify opportunities for budget cuts with or without a tax decrease and how this will impact delivery of services is what they are working on in their Strategic Plan.
Several of the Commissioners raised questions about the layoffs which had just occurred in the system. Comm. Sims was concerned with how this would affect the morale of employees and whether it would result in lawsuits. Comm. Daley stated that if the layoffs were done in compliance with labor contracts, they could be done. Comm. Collins requested information on the amounts spent on registry nurses, on outsourcing, on overtime and administrative costs including contractual studies. She was not able to find this information in the budget books and thought the layoffs could have been done in a better way. Comm. Beavers and Comm. Sims both wanted information on the new Executive Team that is running the hospital - were they from Cook County. Comm. Beavers said the word was that the new CEO was bringing in his own people and he referred to it as "pinstripe patronage" and said this was not a fair way to run the system. Mr. Foley and the HR Director provided information on the new Executive Team - some are from Cook County and some are from outside but with experience relevant to public hospitals.
Comm. Suffredin had questions about reconciling the proposed budget with what had been previously approved and some coding errors were noted in some line items which will be corrected. He also requested that the HHS Board send any employee communications to the Commissioners as well, so they know what is going on. He stated that there have been many rumors circulating and it is helpful to have the facts to deal with the rumors that get going.
Comm. Gainer was concerned with the number of employees that are out on disability and how this impacts reliance on the use of the nurses’ registry and how it impacts overtime. She also wanted to know how the transfer to the Independent Board was progressing. Mr Foley reported that HR is in the middle of their transfer to become separate from HR at the county, and that the purchasing function has mostly been switched from the county to the Health and Hospitals System. It was also clarified that the sunset date for the CCHHS Independent Board as of now is February 28, 2011.
Comm. Schneider raised the issue of the H1N1 vaccinations and there was a lengthy discussion of that issue with Dr. Martin, Chief of Public Health. Comm. Claypool was concerned with how the Strategic Plan is integrated into the budget and how the plan will be carried out. Mr. Foley gave a figure of about $30m for implementation of the Strategic Plan but he said that was hard to say since the plan is still being devised.
Comm. Butler wanted to make clear that the budget for 2010 reflects a decreased subsidy paid by taxpayers to the HHS of $74m. In 2009 the amount of subsidy to support the HHS was $382m and in 2010 it is estimated to be $308m due to anticipated increased revenue generated by HHS.
Comm. Gainer asked about the progress on bringing Cermak Hospital up to the standards necessary for the County to comply with a consent decree dealing with issues there. The person in charge of Cermak Hospital stated that staffing there is now adequate but there continue to be IT problems that result from structural wiring problems. Comm. Daley stated that the Commissioners should ask the Sheriff about the money for dealing with the IT problems and Capital Planning about the plans for dealing with the problems.
Comm. Daley ended the session stating that the budget request for HHS should not be a surprise to anyone since it had been presented in September and was essentially the same budget as they reviewed then.
