Advocate Condell Medical Center

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 its community health strategy, Advocate Condell Medical Center (Advocate Condell) 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 Condell 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 Condell 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 Condell extends its income-based financial assistance policy to its insured patients as well. The hospital continues to review and refine its policy in an ongoing effort to ensure that financial assistance is available to those who need help. The hospital 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.

Description of Advocate Condell. Advocate health care based in Illinois and aurora health care based in Wisconsin merged to become Advocate aurora health in april 2018. Having served the community since 1928, Advocate Condell is a 275-bed non-profit acute care Medical Center located in libertyville, Illinois, and is one of the 27 acute care hospitals in the Advocate aurora health system. Advocate Condell is the only level i trauma Center and is the largest health care provider in lake county, Illinois. The Medical Center provides a full spectrum of Medical servicesfrom obstetrics, radiology services and rehabilitation to open heart surgery, neurosurgery and oncology.advocate Condell's emergency department provides level i trauma care and has the capacity to accommodate growing numbers of patients. In 2023, the Medical Center provided 2,502 trauma care visits out of 50,411 total emergency room visits; 47,909 non trauma er visits. The Medical Center also offers an emergency department approved for pediatrics (edap) and is accredited as a primary stroke center.more than 900 physicians and 793 nurses comprise the team of Medical experts at Advocate Condell. Notably, Advocate Condell is one of ten Advocate aurora health hospitals that have earned magnet recognition from the american nurse credentialing Center (ancc). Magnet status represents hospital-wide teamwork and dedication to creating a positive environment, which helps attract the best physicians and nurses, resulting in better overall patient care. Advocate Condell is nationally recognized as an lgbtq healthcare equality leader, a certified primary stroke Center, awarded the gold plus for stroke by the american heart association and ranked among the best in u.s. news ranking for gastroenterology and gi surgery. In addition to services located on its libertyville campus, Advocate Condell operates three immediate care centers and two fitness centers throughout lake county. Advocate Condell also operates an outpatient imaging Center and is in a joint venture agreement for an ambulatory surgery Center. Advocate Condell is the resource hospital for region 10 emergency Medical services and provides expertise to effectively manage emergency services in a disaster. The Medical Center also provides community health data-driven health and wellness programs, evidence-based strategies to address health issues and community education. As an Advocate aurora Medical Center, Advocate Condell supports the organization's vision of "we help people live well and to fulfill its value of: excellencewe are a top performer in all that we do; compassionwe unselfishly care for others; and respectwe value the unique needs and preferences of all people. Population served. Advocate Condell provides quality health care to individuals regardless of race, religion, creed, national origin, age or ability to pay. In 2023, the Medical Center recorded 13,799 inpatient admissions, 248,882 outpatient visits and 964 deliveries.even in the face of low reimbursements, Advocate Condell is dedicated to maintaining a strong presence within its community and continues to monitor these expenditures to make certain that the programs and services supported are in direct response to community need. In 2023, the Medical Center reported $55,403,312 in community benefit programs and services. These services are comprised of many community health programs focused on improving access to care, addressing special needs and improving overall community health.commitment to the community. Advocate Condell is dedicated to maintaining a strong presence within the community and continues to support programs and services based on the needs in lake county. Community health programs are focused on improving access to care, food insecurity, decreasing substance use, addressing special needs and improving overall community health. Partnering to assess community needs. Advocate Condell collaborated with the lake county health department in the community health needs assessment (chna) completed in 2022. In partnership with the Medical Center, the health department conducted two additional surveys of undersverved communities within the Advocate Condell service areagurnee and western lake county, Illinois. The Medical Center used the results of the health department's extensive community health assessment and the health department community health improvement plan to inform the chna. Staff from Advocate Condell are active members of the live well lake county initiative, focused on improving the overall health of lake county through strategies outlined in the lake county health department improvement plan (chip). As of 2023, Advocate Condell continues to work collaboratively with the health department, participating in action teams addressing obesity (nutrition and physical activity action teams) and diabetes. The live well lake county steering committee monitors the impact of the focused health equity work. The focus is to strategically align with lake county partners and address health disparities in the communty. In 2022, many community coalitions gradually started community meetings up again, with some remaining virtual, some in-person and some hybrid. Advocate Condell also taps the Medical Center's internal clinical service line expertise to assess community needs and to assist in guiding program development. As an example, the community health staff works closely with the Advocate Condell cancer committee to evaluate data on cancer rates in lake county. Based on the findings, the team strategically focuses its efforts and resources on developing an education and prevention program. Advocate Condell's most recent chna cycle was completed with the posting of the 2020-2022 chna in december 2022. The Medical Center identified obesity and behavioral health (mental health and substance use) as the two priority needs to address through its 2023-2025 implementation plan. In 2023, Advocate Condell continued its programming in the community and developed new strategies to address the growing needs that emerged from the pandemic such as food insecurity and behavioral health.community strategy and examples of programs and service accomplishments. As a hospital within the Advocate aurora health system, Advocate Condell implementation plans and strategies align with the aah system strategy. Through this community strategy, the hospital will build health equity, ensure access and improve health oucomes in its community through evidence-informed services and innovative partherships by addressing Medical needs and social determinants of health. Based on need and effect on health equity as identified in the aah hospitals chna reports and on industry literature, the following six focus areas have been prioritized and are the foundation on which the hospital-specific implemenation plans are built. The focus areas are: 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 strategy focus area and examples of Advocate Condell programs and activities addressing that strategy are provided below.1. Access/primary Medical homes. Advocate Condell is committed to undertaking and supporting initiatives that enhance access to health care, including not only its 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 include the following.medical imaging services. Advocate Condell partners with the lake county health department to provide Medical imaging (radiology) services to uninsured lake county health department patients through its Illinois breast and cervical cancer program (ibccp). The ibccp helps provide financial assistance for mammograms and diagnostic screenings. These radiology services, as well as women's health and other services, are provided on a heavily discounted, below cost basis to patients served by the public health department. Advocate Condell also partners with the lake county ywca to provide free and discounted breast screenings. The partnership with the ywca offered 200 free and discounted mammograms in 2023.community health worker. In january 2019, Advocate Condell launched a new access to care program to link patients to a primary care provider. A full-time community health worker (chw) was hired who works in the emergency department to meet with patients coming in for low-acuity reasons. Additionally, the chw works in the community to educate patients on health issues and links patients to social support and primary care services. In 2023, the community health worker served 424 patients in the hospital

Health care services provided by physicians employed by the organization. Clinicians provide care to the community for minor injuries and illness through Advocate Condell's immediate care centers, regardless of the patients' ability to pay. Physicians, nurses and other clinicians participate in community education classes, in person or virtual. Community education classes include heart health education, cancer education, neurological and orthopedic education, prenatal/childbirth and parenting education. Additionally, since the covid-19 pandemic began, clinicians and nurses have also devoted their time to educating community residents in lake county on covid-19 prevention and vaccines. Advocate Condell partners with the lake county health department to provide imaging services to qualified individuals at rates significantly below cost.