The Change Institute, Medicaid redetermination, Hiring, Racially inclusive hospitals
Good morning! Today I’ll be covering the Cook County Health and Hospitals System for @CHIdocumenters. Follow along here or at the livestream below! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj9DT_l0RU-MVC-_u-tOkZA/videos
09:06 AM Mar 25, 2022 CDT
@CHIdocumenters The meeting officially kicked off at 9am with a quick roll call before diving into the first agenda item
Starting on a positive note, the committee is first doing employee recognition through highlighting The Chicago Women of Impact Award.
One of the women honored included Director of Advanced Practice Providers, Ann Sikora-Jackson who provided aid to a Ukrainian family seeking healthcare.
This year the Lown Institute issued the The Lown Institute Hospitals Index for Social Responsibility as “the first rankings program to examine the racial inclusivity of America’s hospitals and determine their success at serving the people of color in their communities.”
The results included the top 50 hospitals for racial inclusivity as well as the bottom 50 for the worst. Check out the full study index here! https://lownhospitalsindex.org/2022-winning-hospitals-racial-inclusivity/
After these recognitions the board heard public comments. One of which included the on-going issues with nurse shortages and workplace treatment.
In her comment a local RN stated that there is not a shortage of nurses but a shortage of nurses willing to work in unsafe environments for inadequate pay. She articulated points of a larger struggle news outlets like the one below has been following. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/nurse-shortage-covid-19-hiring/
Following public comment the board moved over to a few HR hiring metrics within the county hospital system
Valarie Amos, the Chief Human Resources Officer for Cook County Health, began with the hiring updates you see below. As of Feb 2022 there were 1,546 requests to hire and 118 have been hired since. https://t.co/BMQcadZtp2
Amos also detailed the partners helping the County meet these demands and stream line their HR services to yield better, quicker results. https://t.co/qx1ZIa0TW1
Optimization of the HR and hiring structure seems important to meeting the board’s metrics. For example, excess paper documentation, decentralized IT systems and lack of procedural insight have hindered the flow of hiring for the county. https://t.co/blfPSJMuUK
The next agenda item was presented by Interim CEO for CountyCare Health Plan Aaron Galeener. He details the Managed Care Committee Metrics noted over the last few months. One of which was heavily concerned with redetermination metrics.
Redetermination here refers to the process by which Medicaid enrollees maintain their coverage year to year. Often recipients aren’t aware that they need to re-apply or update their Medicaid information yearly leading to coverage gaps for vulnerable populations. https://t.co/UUuIxWgmMN
Here’s a quick look into how the redetermination process can impact key stakeholders. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/macpac-hears-concerns-over-medicaid-redeterminations/617545/
The next agenda item, presented by Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha Jr, covered COVID-19 vaccination updates and the Change Institute of Cook County Health. https://t.co/hqcfROeuUz
The Change Institute of Cook County Health was created to confront diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer with the same fervor with which hospitals have combated COVID-19. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/health-care/cook-county-health-launches-change-institute
Next was a summation of Feb’s strategic highlights and benchmarks. One of which outlined the continued increase in Medicaid population in response to the current public health emergency. The county reports a growth in membership of over 429K members by March 2022. https://t.co/lSdZat4YrM
Other strategic highlights include:
County applying for Homeland Security funding for security measures such as cameras and badge access.
A new pediatric dietician to provide education/counseling for parents of diabetic children.
*Regulatory readiness “boot camp” for leaders
At 10:38 the committee passed a motion to go into closed meeting hours for the last portion of the agenda. They also agreed to adjourn the meeting after returning from this closed session.
This concludes today’s coverage of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board of Directors meeting. For more local news follow @CHIdocumenters and check out http://documenters.org!