William Foley, CEO of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, is reportedly resigning after two years on the job.
Foley joined the system when it was newly independent of the Cook County Commission, and saw it through a top to bottom revamping. Elements of that plan, including turning Provident and Oak Forest hospitals into outpatient centers because of low patient numbers, proved controversial. A state board shot down the Oak Forest idea Monday.
I'll be curious to see who's next to jump into this political hotseat, and whether the system's declining census and apparently difficult relationship with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board might narrow the field of contenders.
Inspectors gave John H. Stroger Hospital passing marks for open heart bypass surgery and hip replacements, but dinged it for problems in infection control and blood vessel surgery.
Hospital officials yesterday announced the results of a review by the Joint Commission, a nonprofit industry group that accredits hospitals. Stroger's accreditation, which is good for three years, was renewed.
The hospital also met or exceeded the commission's standards for coronary bypass grafts and hystorectomies. In addition to infection control and blood vessel surgery, Stroger was also deemed less-than-standard in colon/large intestine surgery, officials say. Read more...
Consultants for the Cook County Health and Hospitals will recommend that the system look to the county's northwest corridor as a new market, while using Oak Forest Hospital as a regional outpatient center.
John Abendshien, a consultant working on a long-term strategic plan for the system, told hospital board members that changes in health care will require more locations to treat more patients, and they must be ready.
"There is going to be a rising tide of demand," he said during the board's regular meeting today. Read more...
The Cook County Health and Hospitals System aims to save $500,000 a year by buying supplies in bulk rates.
A contract with U.S. Food Service, a group purchaser, cuts the county’s food contracts from 11 to one, says spokesman Lucio Guerrero. The deal, announced this week, is part of broader cost-cutting measures at the health system in recent months.
"This is just one part of the substantial savings we will realize," said William Foley, the health system's chief executive. "We will continue to find ways to make sure that we are wisely using taxpayer money while making sure that patient quality doesn't suffer." Read more...
It’s unlikely we’ve heard the last of the sales tax debate. But for now, the sales tax is staying right where it is.
Commissioner Tony Peraica’s bid to axe the remaining half-percent of the 2008 sales tax hike was defeated by county commissioners at Tuesday’s board meeting. Commissioners in the finance committee voted 11-6 against the measure.
Voting nay were Commissioners William Beavers, Jerry Butler, John Daley, Bridget Gainer, Joseph Mario Moreno, Joan Patricia Murphy, Edwin Reyes, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Larry Suffredin. Read more...
