Highlights of Committee Reports included:
Quality and Patient Safety Committee - Director Ansell stated that there were nurse retirements in December that resulted in bed closures at the hospital (I presumed Stroger Hospital although he didn't state which hospital). He also said that some of the beds had been reopened but that nurse recruitment was progressing slowly.
Finance Committee - Director Carvalho singled out one of the contracts being presented for approval. It was for up to $9m to contract out the care of long term ventilator patients if they were "self pay". He stated that an analysis had been done and it was cheaper to contract out services for these patients than it was to keep them in-house. Many of these patients are undocumented he said. All the contracts presented for approval were approved.
A request to execute a Data Sharing Agreement between IDHS and CCHHS was proposed. Dr. Raju, CEO of CCHHS, stated that this would facilitate the process of getting medicaide approval for those patients seeking to be qualified. Dr. Raju said that he has been meeting with the state every 2 weeks regarding the medicaide qualification process and it continues to be slow resulting in cash flow issues for the county. The request for the agreement was approved.
An update was given on the Oak Forest Health Center Capital Renovation Project by those working on this project. This is the first phase ($3m) of a $19m renovation planned for this building that is converting Oak Forest to a primary care and specialty care center. The plan is to have diagnostic imaging, central registration, laboratory and care link on the first floor of Bldg New E with a schedule for destruction bids to come in April and the project to be completed by October. Dr. Mason, chief medical officer, stated that at the present time services continue to be offered but they are spread out throughout the Oak Forest Campus and the intent is to consolidate most services into the New E Building. He also stated that they are looking ahead to establishing a relationship with U of I Extension for doing some gardening on the grounds at Oak Forest so that chronic disease treatment and nutrition will be integrated into future treatment at the center. There was also talk of going back to the CCHHS Strategic Plan that was developed a few years ago to assess progress and to see how the plan needs to proceed or be revised.
Dr. Raju in his report stated that while medicaid revenue has improved slightly in February he predicts they will still not end the year with a balanced budget. He continues to lobby legislators to expand medicaide and indicated that CCHHS is in for a very tough time if the ACA is overturned. He also thanked the Price Waterhouse Coopers team whose contact is not being renewed. They have been transitioning their functions over the last 3 months to Cook County employees and the services they provided will now be done in-house.
Dr. Ansell pressed for more information on the revenue shortfall with medicaide. Dr. Raju stated he thinks the system has a $100m functional deficit because there are a certain number of patients that cannot pay for their care, therfore the system will never run in the black. How to make up the difference is the question.
At 9:00am the meeting went into closed session and the observer left.
Cynthia Schilsky
LWVCC Observer
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