Regarding the Feb. 7 editorial “Medical care at the mall,” I would like to share the following information:
The Cook County Department of Public Health, which has funded access to suburban primary health care services for more than a decade, is pleased to see that Northwest Community Hospital and Alexian Brothers Medical Center have recognized the growing health care needs of the medically indigent in northwest suburban Cook County.
Our department looks forward to working closely with this new clinic in both accepting and referring patients to and from the site. The Cook County Department of Public Health will provide prenatal care and case-management services to mothers and children who are patients at this location.
There are other active models of public/private partnerships in the northwest suburbs. One example is the Genesis Center in Des Plaines, run by Lutheran General Hospital/Advocate Medical Group and in which our department is a participant. The center also provides health care services to the medically indigent population in that region of the county.
Cook County has provided the majority of funding for the Access To Care Program, which in turn provides primary health care to the medically indigent throughout the suburbs in Cook County.
Access to Care has been in existence since 1986 and currently serves more than 3,000 patients from the northwest suburban area.
For this fiscal year, Cook County has committed $1.5 million in funding to this program. In addition, our department last year provided more than 48,000 clinic visits to individuals from the northwest suburban area of the county. These clinic services include: prenatal, family planning, well child, immunization, adult health, nutrition and dental services.
