Sangamon County hospitals respond to disturbing health needs survey
Although Sangamon County is first among all 102 Illinois counties for its quality of clinical care, it ranks 79 th for overall health. That disconnect between health offerings and the community’s actual health illustrates the herculean task facing a coalition of healthminded groups in Springfield.
On Oct. 9, Springfield’s two nonprofit hospitals and the Sangamon County Department of Public Health announced at a meeting of the Citizens Club of Springfield their plans to address pervasive health issues facing Springfield and the surrounding area. The plans are an outgrowth of a collaborative effort to identify – and then fix – Sangamon County’s greatest health-related needs.
Under the federal Affordable Care Act, nonprofit hospitals are required to conduct a “community health needs assessment” every three years, while public health departments are required to do the same thing every five years. To make sure everyone was working toward the same end, the Sangamon County Department of Public Health, St. John’s Hospital and Memorial Health System teamed up for the Sangamon County Healthy Community Survey in 2014. The results of that survey directed the three organizations to focus on four key issues: access to care, child abuse, mental health and obesity.
Springfield’s Enos Park neighborhood will serve as a pilot site of sorts for finding solutions to the issues identified by the survey. While 10.1 percent of all Sangamon County families live in poverty, the number in Enos Park is 39.7 percent. Paula Gramley, community benefit program manager for Memorial Health System, says that although the Enos Park neighborhood borders St. John’s Hospital and Memorial Medical Center, the neighborhood struggles with high rates of diabetes, asthma, mental health issues, high blood pressure and more.
Kimberly Luz, director of community outreach for St. John’s Hospital, says the hospitals have teamed up with the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association and other groups to develop solutions specific to that area. Among the initiatives is creating an advisory council comprised of residents, bringing together service providers to coordinate efforts, expanding mental health treatment to McClernand Elementary School, working to get more residents covered by health insurance and teaching families how to cook nutritious meals with minimal ingredients and equipment.
Luz says the hospitals have been careful not to impose their own ideas about what should happen in Enos Park.
“It’s very important that we are not going in and driving this process as far as telling individuals what their main needs are,” Luz said. “We want to continue having the neighborhood drive the process for us.”
Mitch Johnson, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for Memorial Health System, said his organization plans to expand the building at 520 N. Fourth St., which it leases to SIU School of Medicine for the SIU Center for Family Medicine, a federally funded clinic primarily serving people on Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson said that, in addition to adding more beds at Memorial’s psychiatric unit, the organization is implementing “mental health first aid” training at its hospitals in Springfield, Lincoln, Taylorville and Jacksonville. Mental health first aid involves knowing how to recognize symptoms of mental health distress and suggesting ways for someone to seek help. Memorial is also partnering with Springfield organizations like Kumler Outreach Ministries, the YMCA, Girls on the Run and the genHkids Coalition to support their existing programs, Johnson said.
The main role of the Sangamon County Department of Public Health in addressing the issues raised by the survey is to continue and expand its existing programs and efforts. Jim Stone, director of the health department, said the department will especially work to address child abuse, access to health care and asthma in children. For example, he said the department would work to help people who are “mandated reporters” – those required by law to report child abuse – to recognize abuse and understand their obligations.
Stone said the department will work to get qualified people enrolled in the federal WIC program, which provides supplemental food support for women and children in need. The program was created in 1968 because of agricultural surplus, Stone said, but there are still many people who qualify yet don’t know about the program.
Dr. David Steward, associate dean of the Office of Community Health and Service at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, says the health of a community depends on a variety of factors, so there’s no single fix.
“It’s a complex interplay of the health care system and then all of the rest of the things people do in their lives: where they’re born, grow, live, learn, play, worship and age,” he said. “This is an effort to have the hospitals and the department of public health get together and be more involved in those other things, besides just the patient care business. I think it’s a great opportunity. There are a lot of really good people working on it.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].
