After a months-long search, Cook County Health has discovered its new chief again house, with the present interim CEO being promoted to the everlasting job Thursday.
The Cook County Board confirmed its choice of a search committee, naming Dr. Erik Mikaitis to supervise the administration of Stroger and Provident hospitals, a community of greater than a dozen clinics, and the county’s Medicaid managed care program, CountyCare .
It inherits a proposed funds of $5.2 billion for 2025 and a workforce of about 7,600 folks. Although the system has confronted important monetary hurdles in recent times — together with the excessive prices of offering free care — 2025 is the primary yr in latest historical past that the county well being fund doesn’t have a projected deficit.
CCH, nonetheless, has struggled to fill vacant positions and has relied on costly company workers to fill gaps, angering union leaders and a few county commissioners. The system has 1,700 vacancies and expects to spend $200 million on company staffing by the tip of this yr, CCH spokeswoman Alexandra Normington mentioned, and spending on company staffing represents about 18% of CCH funds for employees.
There have been 1,345 company staff working within the system as of September. The county had 1,667 job gives by means of September of this yr. Of these, 1,007 have been accepted and 631 have been employed from outdoors, Normington mentioned.
On the identical day the board authorised Mikaitis’ appointment, commissioners launched a nonbinding decision geared toward limiting the usage of non permanent workers to twenty% of the funds for full-time staff for every job classification at CCH.
“Since 2018, CCH has awarded $500 million to non-public, non-state company contracts, receiving exorbitant wages as a result of they work alongside unionized employees,” mentioned Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73. Not solely are some company staff incomes greater than unionized employees, “they lack expertise and institutional information,” Palmer mentioned, urging the commissioners and Mikaitis to handle the problem.
Mikaitis had been serving as interim CEO since Israel Rocha, who helped lead CCH by means of the second half of the pandemic, left for a job at Kaiser Permanente in late 2023. His ascension is a return to a historic development of leaders medical doctors. CCH’s mission is to look after sufferers no matter their skill to pay.
“The easy query that drives me is, ‘How can I make issues higher for each these we serve and people who are doing the work?’” Mikaitis instructed commissioners Wednesday throughout a late listening to during which he authorised his appointment and the compensation bundle.
Mikaitio joined CCH in 2022, answerable for high quality assurance and compliance. He beforehand served as vice chairman and medical director for Franciscan Health Crown Point and medical director of Franciscan’s Accountable Care Organization in northern Indiana and the southern suburbs of Chicago. Mikaitis is an inside drugs physician who grew up on the town’s South Side. He additionally holds a bachelor’s diploma in economics from DePaul University.
“We stay up for the continued development and success of the hospital system beneath his management. In the 14 years that I’ve this job, he would be the seventh chief. I teased him the opposite evening by telling him that I hope he is dedicated to this for the subsequent decade,” as a result of the system wants secure management, Prime Minister Toni Preckwinkle instructed reporters after the approval of his appointment.
Mikaitis’ annual wage shall be $713,000 with the choice of annual bonuses of as much as 10%, topic to approval by the well being system’s board.
There has been rather more battle on the board over the selection to guide the county council’s well being and hospital committee, a place which additionally historically secures a spot on the CCH’s impartial board serving to to direct coverage and form the CCH’s funds.
Commissioner Bill Lowry received the seat Thursday with Preckwinkle’s endorsement. But not earlier than Commissioner Alma Anaya mounted her marketing campaign to win in a matchup higher suited to Chicago’s raucous City Council than the normally undramatic County Council beneath Preckwinkle’s management.
Anaya, one of many council’s progressives and the committee’s present vice chair, had been the de facto chief following the sickness and dying of the late commissioner Dennis Deer.
He has lobbied throughout the courtroom in latest months to take energy completely, formally making use of for the job in August. Anaya despatched a letter of help earlier this month to Finance Chairman John Daley and Preckwinkle signed by 55 fellow elected officers, together with her mentor, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
Preckwinkle, nonetheless, needed Lowry to get the job. Lowry is an in depth Preckwinkle ally believed by many commissioners to be his inheritor as board president after Preckwinkle retires.
In a response letter shared with the board, Preckwinkle instructed Anaya that the presidency “has historically been held” by a commissioner representing Stroger or Provident Hospital, a “long-standing apply” that Preckwinkle mentioned she is dedicated to. Lowry’s district contains Provident. This assertion angered some fellow board members, who argued that {qualifications}, not geography, ought to decide who leads committees.
The resolution, Preckwinkle wrote to Anaya, “by no means displays your extraordinary dedication and repair as vice chair of the committee.” He will stay in that place.
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