Chicago Hospitals Face Uncertain Future

The map below was included in a June 19 Chicago Tribune article titled "Chicago Safety-Net Hospitals Face Uncertain Future" The article talks about how the "high costs of poverty" are putting tremendous financial pressures on inner city hospitals. 

 

I've written about this in the past in this set of articles.  I've also pointed to other articles showing challenges of hospitals, which are posted in this section of the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.   This Chicago Health Atlas is a tremendous resource for understanding the distribution of public health issues throughout the region.

I've even shared a "strategic plan" that any hospital could adopt to lower its costs of poverty as well as its cost of attracting skilled workers. This document is designed to be used as a planning tool that leaders in hospitals and teaching universities can use to build their own strategic plan. It is available on Scribd.com for a small fee.

In this section of the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator you can build maps that zoom into the neighborhood around each Chicago hospital, showing levels of poverty, locations of poorly performing schools, and non-school tutor/mentor programs that are in the database.

The circles on the Chicago Tribune map illustrate how each hospital could be an anchor institution in its neighborhood, bringing people together, organizing collective efforts, and mobilizing support for the growth of a wide range of "birth to work" programs supporting youth in the area. Such programs can include mentors from the hospital who model health careers and teach youth and other volunteers about healthy lifestyles. As these messages are adopted the hospital lowers the costs of poverty at the emergency room and inspires young people to think of careers in health care professions.

If you'd like to have my help in exploring these ideas, just connect with me on Facebook, Twitter or Linked in.

Read more articles about using maps. "Don't Ride By Poverty. Get involved."