Program areas at Advocate North Side Health Network
Financial assistance (charity care) and trauma care. Providing inpatient and outpatient Health care services to the community regardless of the patients' ability to pay. As part of Advocate Illinois masonic medical center's (Advocate Illinois masonic) community Health strategy, the medical center is committed to promoting initiatives that enhance access to Health care for the uninsured and underinsured. An example of this is the provision of financial assistance. Advocate Illinois masonic offers a very generous financial assistance program, requiring no payments from the patients most in need, and providing discounts to uninsured and insured patients. Patients earning up to six times the fpl, and insured patients earning up to two and half times the fpl, may qualify for a full or partial financial assistance discount. Additionally, a catastrophic assistance discount is available for uninsured and insured patients whose incomes exceed the traditional financial assistance income guidelines and have outstanding patient balances of $25,000 or more for a single date of service or sum of several dates of service. These patients may qualify to receive a financial assistance discount that reduces their outstanding balance to 25% of their net income. For uninsured patients, Advocate will presumptively provide financial assistance if the financial status has been verified by a third party. In these cases, the patient is not required to submit a separate charity application. If presumptive criteria are not available for uninsured patients, financial assistance eligibility is available using an income-based screening. Advocate extends its income-based financial assistance policy to its insured patients as well. Advocate continues to review and refine its policy in an ongoing effort to ensure that financial assistance is available to those who need help.the medical center maintains highly visible signage and brochures in multiple languages to inform patients of the availability of financial help and financial counselors. Information about the financial assistance program and an application is provided to all uninsured patients during registration and is mailed to them in advance of the first patient billing. After that, each uninsured patient's bill includes summary information regarding the financial assistance program. In 2023, Advocate illinos masonic provided $1,140,407 in emergency department charity care assistance. Advocate Illinois masonic is dedicated to providing expert emergency and trauma care. The medical center's level i trauma center, one of only four in chicago, cares for the most seriously injured people within its service area. Emergency and trauma services are provided regardless of the ability to pay. In 2023, the medical center experienced 44,006 emergency room visits, of which 739 were level i trauma patients.
Graduate medical education. Advocate Illinois masonic is committed to training Health care providers in a broad range of specialties. In 2023, the medical center trained 820 medical students and other Health professionals in the following services: anesthesiology, cardiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, obsetrics/ gynecology, orthopedic surgery, podiatry, radiology, general surgery, surgical critical care and urology. The medical center also has training programs for other healthcare professionals, including pharmacy, nursing, psychology, social work and rehabilitation. A limited number of dental students receive specialized training in programs for special needs dentistry and serve patients on the mobile dental van. The medical center also provides accredited chaplaincy training through the medical center's accredited clinical pastoral education program. In 2023, the immc team supported 8 d4 students and 10 d3 students.
Health care services provided by physicians employed by the organization. Health care services provided by physicians employed by the medical center are focused on impacting the Health of the community. The digestive Health team has been working actively to increase colon cancer screenings. Emergency medicine physicians have been training local emergency medical technicians (emts) as well as providing training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (cpr), bleeding control and appropriate bike helmet usage. A range of physicians and associates provide Health education, lectures and screenings at community Health events throughout the year.
Description of Advocate Illinois masonic. Advocate Illinois masonic is a 397-bed teaching medical center located on chicago's North Side and is one of 28 acute care hospitals in the Advocate aurora Health system. In december of 2022, Advocate Health based in Illinois and aurora Health based in Wisconsin, merged with atrium Health based in North carolina. The medical center, one of only four level i trauma centers in chicago, Illinois, treated 739 trauma patients in 2023. Advocate Illinois masonic also has one of chicago's most active emergency departments (eds). There were a total of 43,267 (including trauma) emergency visits to the medical center in 2023. The medical center's level iii neonatal intensive care unit (nicu) holds the state's highest designation. The medical center had 1,402 infants delivered (live births) in 2023. Advocate illlinois masonic is fully accredited by det norske veritas (norway) and germanischer lloyd (germany) (dnv-gl), with the exception of outpatient behavioral Health, which is accredited by the commission on accreditation of rehabilitation facilities (carf). Advocate Illinois masonic has more than 1,000 active physicians on staff representing 43 medical specialties. It employs almost 800 registered nurses. The medical center offers a wide range of medical services and is nationally recognized for its medical expertise, innovative technologies and dedication to patient safety, quality and service. Advocate Illinois masonic's major services include: behavioral Health; comprehensive surgical; emergency and trauma; cancer care; ophthalmology; cardiovascular; digestive disease; obstetric, gynecology, midwifery and pediatric; orthopedic and neuroscience. Ambulatory and community Health services include: primary care; a dentistry program, including a mobile dental van; vision; a deaf and hard of hearing program; the pediatric developmental center; ear, nose and throat; urology and urogynecology; physical rehabilitative; diagnostic imaging; infusion therapy; pain management; rheumatology; and a hospital-based food pantry.multiple Advocate Illinois masonic institutes bring the highest level of excellence in caring for patients diagnosed with the following chronic diseases.heart disease. Given that heart disease is the second leading cause of death in the hospital's primary service area, Advocate Illinois masonic established a heart and vascular institute. As one of the area's first medical centers to perform open heart surgery, Advocate Illinois masonic offers a complete range of state-of-the-art cardiac services. Medical center staff also participate in Illinois heart rescue, a program that seeks to improve out-of-hospital survival rates related to cardiac arrest. Cancer. The creticos cancer center, located on the Advocate Illinois masonic campus, unites all cancer care and research under one roof for more efficient and personalized planning and treatment. The center offers a wealth of services to address the unique needs of cancer patients throughout the continuum of care. The center for advanced care, which opened in 2015, enabled Advocate Illinois masonic to expand and centralize outpatient surgery, digestive Health and cancer services into one location, creating improved access to care, continuity among disciplines, enhanced efficiencies and a better overall experience for patients and their families. Advocate Illinois masonic has an extensive range of cancer support services, including bilingual spanish/english psychosocial support, counseling and financial navigation. Nurse navigators provide linkage with community programs, physical medicine, rehabilitation, pain management services, palliative care, hospice and home care programs. The center hosts the american cancer society's look good, feel better program. Each year at the medical center, the amber foundation facilitates the sponsorship of free mammograms, counseling and education regarding breast cancer specifically targeting the polish community in chicago. The cancer center provides a lung screening program and a direct access screening program for colorectal cancer. The direct access program allows patients to schedule colonoscopies without first having a face-to-face consultation with a gastroenterologist.stroke/primary stroke center. Community engagement within the stroke program is a key initiative. Advocate Illinois masonic partners with many organizations to ensure outreach education is provided for all ages as stroke can happen at any age. Medical center partnerships include nursing homes, assisted living communities, chicago housing authority communities (>50 at risk populations); Health fairs; and education days with the chicago fire department and the chicago police department. A few events that the medical center attended are aha/asa cycle nation, aha heart and stroke walk, centro romero, center on addison/halsted and many others. The outreach and education programs include: stroke risk screening; stroke identification and treatment education; and wellness screenings/talks (blood pressure, diet, managing obesity, smoking cessation). 2023 highlights for the stroke center included participation in aha cyclenation 2023, aha heart walk 2023, system virtual support group, site outreach at belmont village senior living, lakeview east festival of the arts, and the wellness fun fair for the skokie school district 69, which included stroke awareness presentations related to befast, signs and symptoms of stroke, stroke risk factors as well as stroke heart Health for adults and children.cancer support programs. The medical center works closely with the Illinois breast and cervical cancer program to ensure that uninsured women have access to screening and treatment for breast or cervical cancer. Advocate illlinois masonic also has a breast cancer support group for latinas and is developing a cancer support group for the lgbtq community.in 2023, the medical center employed over 2,000 associates and had 386 volunteers. Advocate Illinois masonic trained a total of 820 medical students in 2023, not including the 5,970 ems students. The medical center is one of Illinois' largest non-university medical teaching hospitals and is affiliated with the university of Illinois at chicago Health sciences center, rosalind franklin university and midwestern university, chicago college of medicine, Arizona college of medicine and des moines university. The medical center also provides community Health data-driven Health and wellness programs, evidence-based strategies to measure community Health outcomes, community lectures and other services in support of its vision "we help people live well and to fulfill its values of: excellence we are a top perfomer in all that we do; compassion we unselfishly care for others; and respect we value the unique needs and preferences of all people. Population servedadvocate Illinois masonic provides quality Health care to individuals regardless of race, gender, creed, national origin, age or ability to pay. In 2023, the medical center's physicians and associates provided 12,785 inpatient admissions, including 1,327 deliveries, and handled 22,064 outpatient visits. As a level i trauma center, Advocate Illinois masonic experienced 739 level i trauma visits and a total of 44,006 (trauma visits included) emergency department visits in 2023. (for a description of the medical center's service area, please see the summary provided in schedule h, part vi. Supplemental information, line 4. )commitment to the communityadvocate Illinois masonic is dedicated to maintaining a strong presence within its community and continues to monitor expenditures to make certain that the programs and services supported are in direct response to community need. In 2023, the medical center provided over $71.7 million in community benefit programs and services. These benefits included not only the cost of financial assistance and unreimbursed medicaid and medicare, for example, but also the cost for implementing and sustaining programs specifically designed to meet the Health care needs of the community.
Community Health strategy and examples of programs and services accomplishmentsas a medical center within the Advocate aurora system, Advocate Illinois masonic's implementation plans and strategies align with the Advocate aurora system strategy. Through this community strategy, the medical center will build Health equity, ensure access and improve Health outcomes in its community through evidence-informed services and innovative partherships by addressing medical needs and social determinants. Based on need and effect on Health equity as identified in the Advocate aurora hospitals chna reports and on industry literature, the following six focus areas have been prioritized, from which each individual Advocate aurora hospitals' community implemenation plan is built: 1) access to primary medical homes; 2) access to behavioral Health services; 3) workforce development; 4) community safety; 5) affordable housing; and 6) workforce development. Each strateg focus area and examples of Advocate Illinois masonic programs addressing it are provided below.1. Access/primary medical homes. Advocate Illinois masonic is committed to undertaking and supporting initiatives that enhance access to Health care, including not only financial assistance as indicated earlier for item 4.a, but also care coordination, language assistance, culturally sensitive provision of care, and prevention education and wellness services across the lifespan and within the diverse communities the medical center serves. Some examples of such programs provided by the medical center include the following.transition support program. The transition support program (tsp) is a navigation service that assists with the coordination of follow-up care for patients with challenges navigating Health services. Prior to the project, Advocate Illinois masonic's community Health council identified chronic disease management as a key Health disparity for its primary service area (psa). The community Health needs assessment concluded that patients in the medical center's psa with chronic illnesses experience significant barriers navigating the Health care system, including barriers related to referrals, appointments, insurance, transportation, language and medication access. By providing strength-building and culturally and linguistically- competent navigation of a complex Health care system, the tsp aims to reduce readmissions and emergency room visits and improve care transitions across the continuum for patients and families, regardless of insurance or circumstance.the program connects patients without primary care providers to Health centers with Advocate aurora Health and the surrounding community. In 2023, the program connected 1,782 uniunsured and low-income patients to primary care providers and services. Illinois oral Health programs. Advocate Illinois masonic provides two dental programs focused on improving access to oral Health services. The mobile dentistry program brings oral Health care services to underserved and uninsured populations, including low-income children and families, people experiencing homelessness, older adults and persons with special needs at 18 different locations across the community. The special needs dentistry program provides access to oral Health for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Most dentists lack the training or equipment needed to effectively serve patients with special needs, resulting in many individuals lacking access to even basic dental care. In 2023, the special needs dentistry program had 1,637 visits, serving 1,384 persons with special needs, and the mobile dental van provided 2,873 services to 508 people in 1,242 visits.pediatric development center/autism treatment program. Appropriate diagnosis of developmental challenges is critical to assisting these individuals in living their "best", most healthy life. This program diagnoses children and adolescents from birth to age 18 who face developmental challenges. Post-diagnosis, the program provides specialized treatment programs as well as training, education and support for the entire family, including "sibshops" for siblings of developmentally disabled children. The autism treatment program housed in Advocate Illinois masonic's pediatric developmental center (pdc) serves children with autism and their families--both those with commercial insurance and medicaid plans. The pdc remains one of the only centers in Illinois to provide diagnostic evaluations and therapy services for autism to low-income families. In 2023, for example, over 66% of patients served at the center were on medicaid or government-funded, early intervention. The pdc provides both comprehensive diagnostic evaluations, specialty medical care (developmental pediatrics) as well as comprehensive therapy services (individual behavior therapy, socialization groups, speech, occupational and physical therapy, social work services, parent training and sibling support). In 2023, the pdc provided services to 2,071 unduplicated patients for a total of 21,269 patient contactsat least half of which represented patients with autism. The pdc offers services in both english and spanish, including ongoing parent training and support to enhance generalization of skills into all environments. Medication assistance program. The medication assistance program provides financial as well as resource navigation help to patients who are unable to afford their medication. Medical center staff work with pharmaceutical companies to obtain medications at no or low costs for patients as well as financially supporting the purchase of some medications. In 2023, Advocate Illinois masonic assisted 81 patients through this program. Additionally, assistance was provided for clothing to 111 patients and transpotation vouchers were provided for 103 patients.services for the lgbtq community. Advocate Illinois masonic was the first Advocate hospital to achieve, since its inception, "leader" staus denomination with the human rights campaign foundation's Health equity index. The hospital is one of 496 leaders out of 906 participants. As the leading lgbtq site, it has been the foundation for Advocate Health care to be the 4th largest Health system. Leaders are recognized for policies and services supportive of lgbtq rights, including patient visitation and employment non-discrimination, staff training in lgbtq patient-centered care, lgbtq patient services and support, transgender patient services, employee benefits, and patient and community engagement. In 2016, advoate Illinois masonic created a site lgbtq work group working on affinity. Advocating for policies and processes for gender expansive affirming identification and capabilities to capture gender identify and sexual orientation sogi data. Advocate Illinois masonic' experience served as the model for other medical centers witin the Advocate Health care Network to participate in the Health equity index in 2020, impacting thousands of team members and millions of patients across ilinois and Wisconsin. The hospital was featured in the hei 15 years report as one of 4 initial survey respondents and a model for community hospitals participation. Despite the circumstances and challenges that the covid-19 pandemic brought to the entire Health care system, Advocate hospitals continued their commitment to inclusive and affirming care lgbtq patients in 2023.healthy families. The Advocate Illinois masonic healthy families program is a support program for young parents, providing intensive home visiting services for at-risk families. The program model is rooted in the belief that early, nurturing relationships are the foundation for life-long, healthy development. The program provides three key services: 1) free prenatal classes open to the community; 2) doula services providing home visits and on-call labor/delivery support; and 3) parent coaching home visitation for up to the first three years of a child's life. All services are grant-funded, free to the community and available in english/spanish. Language assistance/interpreter services. Advocate Illinois masonic provides care for patients from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In order to meet the unique communication needs of populations accessing care at the medical center, Advocate Illinois masonic employs spanish, polish and american sign language interpreters to provide interpretation services as needed. In addition, as with all hospitals in the system, Advocate Illinois masonic offers telephonic and/or video interpreting in more than 200 languages. In 2023, the medical center provided language assistance services to a total of 81,929 patient/family encounters.
2. Access/behavioral Health servicesadvocate Illinois masonic has also implemented several programs focused on improving the continuum of care for the benefit of mental Health and behavioral Health patients.first access. Given the high number of admissions and ed visits for behavioral Health conditions at Advocate Illinois masonic and the high number of discharged patients that were not keeping their outpatient follow-up appointments, the hospital's behavioral Health department created the first access program in 2013. The goal of first access is to provide immediate access to follow-up behavioral Health services to support recovery and prevent relapses. Through this program, behavioral Health ed patients, as well as patients referred by the hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit, medical floors and physicians, are linked to follow-up for outpatient appointments with minimal wait time. Since its implementation, first access has consistently increased behavioral Health patients' appointment follow-through rates from 40 percent in 2013 to 100% in 2019; all discharged patients received warm hand-offs to behavioral Health services and left with an outpatient plan of care. Having achieved that, first access started to focus on providing access to care to all Advocate patients and its volumes have steadily grown, providing 1,877 intakes to patients in 2023. In 2023, bhs extended intake functionality for new patients beyond first access so that intermittent staffing challenges do not interfere with steady access to care.deaf and hard of hearing program. Language services at Advocate Illinois masonic medical center's deaf and hard of hearing program provides comprehensive mental Health care in american sign language (asl) to deaf and hard of hearing children, adolescents, and adults across Illinois. The program offers a continuum of care that includes clinical assessments; pre-screenings and linkage; individuals and family therapy; psychiatric evaluations and medication monitoring; as well as crisis intervention with 24-hour phone line. Tele-psychiatry is available to clients using a variety of methods, including videophone equipment supported by the federal communications commission (fcc) and teams/zoom, that suits the individual's linguistic and technological needs to enable the provision of otherwise scarce deaf-friendly psychiatric services in the home of deaf patients. Over the years, the hospital has distributed several thousand free asl dvds on hiv/aids, stds, breast Health, diabetes, depression, and smoking cessation. In 2023. Bhs provided 1,703 services to 78 dhoh patients, with 1,518 offered by the asl-fluent staff and 185 services using reasonable accomodations /interpreting. Elven patients of those 78 dhoh patients also have visual impairment; they reveive 238 service over the course of 2023.the medically integrated crisis community support (miccs) program. The miccs program is a service which follows acutely behaviorally ill patients, a portion of whom are homeless, who have a comorbid physical illness or addiction, and a pattern of seeking primary and behavioral Health care in the ed, inpatient psychiatric unit or medical unit of community hospitals. The multidisciplinary team working with the clients is comprised of clinicians, clergy and other associates who are in daily contact with the clients. In 2023, 32 people enrolled in mobile crisis received 545 services, of which all were delivered in the community. First episode psychosis (fep): the fep program serves adolescents and young adults who are facing the onset of pscychosis disorders. Trough specialized and collaborative approaches, the program provides support and education to patients and their family with the goals of improving recovery outcomes, reducing the likelihood of acute relapse, and supporting patients with accomplishing their wellness goals for the future. Treatment goals are achieved through therapy, psychiatry, supported employment/education, family psychoeducation, and recovery support services. In 2023, there were 59 unduplicated patients in the fep program who received a total of 1127 services.3. Workforce developmentbelieveing that many community Health issues are driven by social determinants of Health, the medical center has formed non-traditional partnerships with key stakeholders, such as employment agencies, to provide medical education employment opportunities to low-income and/or minority individuals. Also, in addition to the graduate medical education described in 4.c, the medical center also promotes the training of future Health care professionals working towards degrees in many other disciplines. Several examples of these education programs are provided below.workforce initiative. As indicated in part v, question 11, the medical center also engages in a workforce development initiatives to recruit, train and hire community members seeking employment opportunities in the healthcare industry. Additionally, the workforce development offers an incumbent worker program (navigate) to front-line teammates at Advocate Illinois masonic, which includes soft-skills training, tools and resources designed to assist individuals in developing career pathways. Workforce development, which also aims to increase minority representation in the heath care sector, enrolled 8 participants in the navigate program and served 49 teammates in teammate success coaching at Advocate Illinois masonic in 2023.partnership with the medical organization for latino advancement (mola). Targeting latino at-risk youth, Advocate Illinois masonic, in partnership with mola, provides outreach in Health education and screening in underserved areas of chicago. The medical center also in partnership with mola provides medical education opportunities for underepresented latino/latina students interested in Health care careers, as well as opportunities for international medical graduates to gain valuable u.s. hospital experience through various resource and volunteer programs (i.e., transition support program).nursing education. Advocate Illinois masonic's nurse residency program is an evidence-based, 24-week precepted orientation. The goal of the program is to enhance nlrn professional development and increase organizational engagement so that the nlrn provides safe and confident care to patients. Although this program is not included in the community benefits financial numbers for Health professionals' education, this program increases Advocate nurses' proficiency and skills for current and future nursing roles. In addition to the nurse residency program, the medical center trains nursing students (non-resident) from five area community-based colleges/universities for which staff teaching time is reported as community benefit.4. Community safetythe medical center also works with community partners to address community safetya social determinant of Health. Some examples are provided below.advocate trauma recovery center (trc). The trc is a Health care-based violence intervention program that provides social and behavioral Health services, individual and group therapeutic services, and psychiatric consultation to survivors of intentional crime and/or trauma. The purpose is to aid individuals who have experienced trauma in rebuilding, restoring and strengthening their sense of safety by ending the cycle of violence. The trc provides access to trauma-informed care by acknowledging how past and present traumatic experiences and stress may impact the individuals and families servedresponding to the unique needs of each survivor and their family. The trc program began at Advocate christ medical center in 2019. In late 2022, the trc program expanded its services to Advocate condell medical center and Advocate Illinois masonic through support from the Illinois criminal justice information authority. The trc services have expanded from cook county, will county, kankakee county and dupage county to also serve lake county, kane county, kendall county, and mchenry county. The program now has trauma outreach workers that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In 2023, a total of 2,178 people were served by the trc program. The top three groups serviced, by race and etnicity, were black or african american (62.2%), hispanic or latino (19.0%) and white non-latino or caucasian (16.4%).
Disaster coordination. Advocate Illinois masonic's emergency medical services staff train city and private ambulance and fire department paramedics. As one of only eleven hospitals in Illinois designated as a resource hospital coordination center (rhcc), the medical center is responsible for coordinating medical response within a densely populated region of chicago. This includes coordinating emergency medical response efforts at major events, such as the chicago marathon and during visits of national and international leaders. The hospital also serves as the lead hospital for disasters occurring in chicago, including o'hare airport.5. Housing data indicates that poor quality housing is associated with various negative Health coutcomes, including chronic disease, injury, and poor mental Health. Advocate Illinois masonic is working with community partners to address housing with the goal of providing a safe and healthy place to live and to convalesce. This supports the Advocate aurora systemwide goal to decrease the number of ed patients who are screened positive for homelessness by 5% by 2025. The following are examples of the medical center's efforts to address this sdoh.6. Food securityaccess to fresh, affordable food is a key ingredient in the recipe to address social determinants of healthand in keeping the community healthy. Advocate Illinois masonic is involved with multiple local community partners to develop sustainable food initiatives to address food insecurity. Examples of these initiatives are provided below.hospital-based food pantry programs in central chicagoland. Advocate Illinois masonic medical center hospital-based food pantry program screens patients for food insecurity. Patients who screen positive for food insecurity are eligible for a non-perishable food bag and fresh produce box once a month. In addition, the medical center implements pop up farmers markets in low-income and vulnerable communities with high food insecurity rates. In 2023, the program served 58 patients and distributed an estimated 870 pounds of food.baby friendly hospital. Advocate Illinois masonic is certified as baby friendly, a designation from the world Health organization recognizing the highest level of support for breastfeeding mothers and babies. This designation and related practices are a strong step forward in addressing the city's childhood obesity epidemic. Providing infants with human milk gives them the most complete nutrition possible because it provides the best mix of nutrients for each baby to thrive. The baby friendly designation, which is granted by baby-friendly usa, recognizes the medical center's success at providing an optimal level of support for breastfeeding mothers and babies. The designation was achieved after a rigorous four-phase process culminating with comprehensive on-site evaluation. Scientific studies have shown that breastfed children have far fewer and less serious illness than those who never received breast milk, including a reduced risk of sids, childhood cancer and diabetes.in addition to the medical center's many programs and services described previously, there are a myriad of other community services offered including: human breast milk depot; bike helmet fitting events; the better breathers club (assists community members with respiratory issues); quarterly blood drives; car seat safety checks; provision of meeting space for community organizations; cpr, choking and bleeding control trainings for the community; incontinence seminars; content targeted golden age senior seminars; seminars for chicago housing authority residents on various Health issues; stroke education seminars; and multiple disease specific support groups.