Robert Simon MD, Chief
The Cook County Bureau of Health
Services (the "Bureau") provides a full continuum of public health services
to the medically underserved through its six operating entities:
- Cook County Hospital:
A tertiary, acute care hospital on the West side of Chicago;
- Provident Hospital of Cook County:
a community hospital on the South side of Chicago;
- Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County:
a long term care hospital and skilled nursing facility in the southwest
suburbs of Chicago;
- The Ambulatory and Community Health
Network: a system of 28 community, primary care clinics in medically
underserved areas and schools of Cook County;
- The Cook County Department of
Public Health: providing prevention and education services
in suburban Cook County; and
- Cermak Health Services:
providing health screening, primary and specialty care to the inmate population
of Cook County Jail;
The Bureau is an executive agency of
Cook County government, under the aegis
of the President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The Board
of Commissioners acts as the governing board for the Bureau's operating
entities. The chief operating officer of each operating division
reports to the Bureau Chief.
For more than a century, Cook County
has provided public health services to those in medical need, regardless
of their ability to pay. Today, the County through the Bureau of
Health Services, provides a full range of inpatient acute care services
- Medical/Surgical, Intensive Care, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Neonatology,
and Burn. In addition, long term care and skilled nursing care is
provided at Oak Forest Hospital.
The Bureau also is a dominant provider
of ambulatory care in Cook County. The Bureau has pioneered in shifting
care delivery from inpatient to ambulatory settings. In recent years,
through the Ambulatory and Community Health Network, a system of now 25
primary care clinics have been developed in the communities in our patients
live. This includes the recently completed CORE Center, a 60,000
square foot facility for the comprehensive treatment of HIV/AIDS and related
infectious diseases.
In terms of hospital-based ambulatory
care, no other local provider furnishes anywhere near the volumes of services
delivered by the Bureau. Emergency room volumes, about 160,000 visits
per year, outnumber the next three largest local providers combined.
Outpatient clinic visits to the Fantus Health Center's more than 90 primary
and specialty care clinics totaled nearly one-half million last year.
More than 70% of the emergency and clinic visits are uncompensated by insurers.
By a wide margin, the Bureau is the largest provider of health care services
to the Medicaid and uninsured populations in the area.
It is the mission of Cook County
Bureau of Health Services and its affiliated providers to serve any person
residing in Cook County, regardless of their ability to pay for services.
Cook County's estimated population of is 5.16 million (1994 census estimate).
The largest municipality is the City of Chicago, with an estimated population
of 2.78 million (1990 census). Compared to Cook County suburban areas,
census data indicate that the Chicago population has lower median income
and higher poverty incidence, is more likely to be unemployed, is more
likely to be African-American or Hispanic, is more frequently a female
headed household, and, on average, has less schooling. The Bureau's
service delivery is focused in Chicago, but extends throughout underserved
areas of Cook County.
Throughout the County, including
Chicago, the Bureau's clients predominantly reside in the poorer community
areas with correspondingly less favorable socioeconomic indicators than
the county at large: higher rates of poverty and unemployment, less
educational attainment, and higher rates of crimes of violence.
In terms of health care access, the
rates of medical uninsurance and public aid participation are far higher
for the Bureau's patient population than for the County as a whole.
Indeed, the map of federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas
for Cook County closely mirrors the map of the Bureau's primary service
areas. In a typical Bureau service area -Garfield - survey results
indicate that persons are nearly three times more likely to report their
regular source of medical care to be a clinic or an emergency room, than
a doctor.
Compared to the County as a whole,
maternal and infant health indicators for the Bureau patient population
are higher with respect to fertility and birth rates, teen birth rates,
incidence of low birth weight, and infant mortality. Similarly, death
rates are higher in the our service areas for deaths under the age of 65,
deaths from influenza and pneumonia, deaths from diabetes, and deaths from
intentional and unintentional injury. Rates of "notifiable illnesses"
such as AIDS, tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, lead poisoning, and hepatitis
B are relatively more frequent than in the metropolitan population at large.
Additionally, incidence of asthma and sickle cell disease, injury from
burns and from violence, and the frequency of premature birth, tend to
be higher.
While more than 90% of the Bureau's
acute care inpatients originate in Chicago, the Bureau's ambulatory service
delivery is more dispersed throughout the County. Suburban areas in the
southwest, west, and northwest with demographic and public health profiles
indicating medical underservice are targeted through the activities of
the Ambulatory and Community Health Network and the Cook County Department
of Public Health.
Read the latest CCBHS Grants Newsletter
Send comments to ord@cchil.org
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See also:
Ambulatory & Community
Health Network
Cook County Hospital, Oak Forest Hospital, Provident
Hospital
Cook County Department
of Public Health, Cermak Health
Services
