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INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE OF CHICAGO

  • 18 Jul 2023 2:21 PM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., has proposed a plan that aims to help the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps recruit, retain and mobilize members to better respond to national and global public health crises. [Health News Illinois]

    The bill would give corps members access to benefits and entitlements provided to reserve components of all other uniformed services, including leave rights and GI Bill educational benefits.

    The corps is one of the nation’s eight uniformed services and has an exclusive focus on protecting the country during public health emergencies like Ebola, natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Duckworth.

    “One of the most critical lessons we can learn from the COVID-19 pandemic is how important it is for our country to be prepared for the next public health crisis,” Duckworth said. “Supporting our Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and ensuring Ready Reserve Corps service members have the same benefits as our other uniformed service members will help create more opportunities for Americans to serve and protect our country against current and future public health emergencies.”

    Despite dating back to 1798, the corps lacked an operational ready reserve component or public health emergency response strike team until the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was signed into law in 2020, according to Duckworth. The initial authorization left gaps in personnel policy and benefits relative to other branches.

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  • 17 Jul 2023 9:09 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    For Star August, the birth of her first son did not go as planned. August hired an out-of-hospital midwife to guide her through the pregnancy but attended checkups in a hospital as a cost-saving measure. At one of her last checkups, the doctors told her that her amniotic fluid was low and wanted to induce labor. [Crains]

    "I wasn't able to get a hold of my midwife, and I didn't know what to do," August recalls.

    What happened next was a harrowing experience. After taking Pitocin, a synthetic hormone used to induce labor and speed up contractions, her son's heart rate began to drop. August was rushed to the operating room for an emergency C-section. She wasn't completely anesthetized before doctors cut into her skin, and they ignored her pleas to stop.

    After awakening from a drug-induced coma, she saw her newborn son being resuscitated next to her. Once revived, the baby was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit. August couldn't experience skin-to-skin contact with her child at birth, which can decrease stress in both mother and child and help initiate breastfeeding.

    August's traumatic birthing story is a familiar one, especially for Black and Brown women, who face a greater risk of trauma and death due to childbirth, compared to their white peers.

    Research published earlier this month by the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, found higher maternal mortality rates in Black communities, while Native American and Alaska Native people experienced a particularly rapid rise. State median mortality rates more than tripled over the last two decades. 

    Dr. Melissa Simon, MD, is a Fellow of IOMC and a member IOMC's Maternal Health and Child Workgroup. If you would like more information about this workgroup, send an email to the IOMC office at iomcstaff@iomc.org. 

    More> 

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  • 14 Jul 2023 11:39 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    Recent research indicates efforts to improve maternal health in the U.S. have largely failed, with the maternal mortality rate more than doubling over the past two decades amid vast disparities between racial and ethnic groups. [ US News] 

    Maternal mortality in the U.S. has gotten worse in recent decades, a study shows, particularly for Native and Black women.


    READ: Maternal Deaths Rose During Pandemic

    Findings from a novel state-by-state analysis of maternal deaths, published this month in JAMA, show the rate of death among people 10 to 54 years old who were either pregnant or had been pregnant within the past year rose from 12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1999 to 32.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2019, with total maternal deaths increasing from 505 to 1,210. Between the decades of 1999 to 2009 and 2010 to 2019, the study found increases in maternal mortality rates across nearly all states and among all racial and ethnic groups.

    Across the five racial and ethnic groups included, the study’s estimates show American Indian and Alaska Native females, as well as Black females, had the highest maternal mortality rates in 2019, along with the largest absolute mortality rate increases since 1999. Among American Indians and Alaska Natives, the national maternal mortality rate more than tripled over the two decades studied – from 19 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1999 to 69.3 per 100,000 in 2019 – while maternal mortality among Black women more than doubled, from 31.4 to 67.6.

    Among whites, the maternal mortality rate also roughly tripled, from 9.2 to 27.9. Similar patterns were found when examining median maternal mortality rates across states.

    More> 

    If you are interested in more information about IOMC's Maternal Health and Child Workgroup, please contact IOMC at iomcstaff@iomc.org

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  • 13 Jul 2023 11:11 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    The U.S. health care system is not set up to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable, chronically ill, elderly people, especially those who are poor. Older poor people often face loneliness, depression, a lost sense of purpose, and an inability to live independently in their homes. They also encounter many health service hurdles, including inadequate care coordination, fee-for-service reimbursement that often reflexively encourages medical treatment over other forms of care, and a dysfunctional nursing home industry. [Harvard Business Review]


    To help improve services for these patients, we analyzed the design and implementation of a national program called PACE: Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. We focused on this program because all PACE participants are vulnerable: They require nursing home–level care, and 90% are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Few integrated-care programs serve this dual-eligible population, which now numbers 12.5 million Americans.

    More>

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  • 13 Jul 2023 11:05 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    Delivery-related maternal mortality in U.S. hospitals decreased for all racial and ethnic groups, age groups and modes of delivery during 2008 to 2021, likely due to national strategies to improve delivery-related hospital care, the Department of Health and Human Services reported. Advanced maternal age, racial or ethnic minority group status, cesarean delivery and comorbidities were associated with higher odds of mortality and severe maternal morbidity, according to the HHS study, published in JAMA Network Open. Adm. Rachel L. Levine, M.D., HHS’ assistant secretary for health, said the results “underscore the need to better manage women’s health, including identifying the most significant risk factors and supporting access to improved care.” [AHA]

    More>

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  • 12 Jul 2023 10:04 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    Gov. JB Pritzker's administration has applied to the federal government to extend Illinois’1115 waiver for behavioral health services, with officials saying it will help with their goal of “healthcare transformation.”

    The five-year extension application to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposes 10 programs. Along with continuing four pilots originally approved by the agency in 2018 related to substance use disorder services, the waiver seeks to address food and nutrition services, employment assistance, non-medical transportation and community reintegration for previously incarcerated individuals.

    “The section 1115 demonstration request is an essential component of Illinois’s strategic plan to build an equitable and sustainable healthcare system,” Pritzker wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “This comprehensive initiative will leverage the existing transformation framework of the 1115 demonstration activities within the current program to include additional foundational innovations to address the health-related social needs of Illinoisans.”

    CMS originally approved the state’s 1115 waiver in 2018, granting the Department of Healthcare and Family Services the ability to implement 10 pilot programs to address the state’s behavioral health system. The initial goal, officials said, was to pilot treatments for addiction to opioids and other substances that were not directly available to Illinois Medicaid beneficiaries.

    But numerous factors in recent years, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic and its challenges to Pritzker being elected after the initial waiver was submitted, have changed priorities.

    Officials are now seeking to rename the plan the Illinois Healthcare Transformation Section 1115 Demonstration to “better align with the state’s overall goal and current efforts to create an equitable and sustainable healthcare system for Illinoisans.”

    “(HFS) now seeks to leverage Section 1115 Demonstration authority to secure additional Medicaid resources to sustain the groundbreaking work already underway and seed additional innovations,” according to the application.

    CMS said late last month that they have extended the state’s demonstration through next June as the two sides continue negotiations over the current extension application.

    The federal public comment period will be open until July 28.

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  • 11 Jul 2023 7:29 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration last week unveiled its transition report that touched on ways to improve healthcare in the city, including reopening all city-run mental health centers "in phases." [Health News Illinois]

    The report, compiled by Johnson’s transition team, says identifying which centers will also house 24/7 mental health crisis and stabilization services are important for community care and crisis response. It does not set a timeline for when the reopenings may occur.

    “In addition to appropriate staffing by behavioral health professionals, community health workers should be hired to staff mental health centers, crisis response teams, and to engage individuals with high levels of unmet need via community-based services,” the report states.

    The city closed six of its mental health clinics in 2011, a decision that has drawn criticism from progressives like Johnson, who has repeatedly called for the centers to be reopened.

    The recommendation was part of the transition team’s goal to overhaul Chicago’s mental health system, one of 12 healthcare goals listed in the report. Other goals include:

    ·    Improve the city’s ability to apply for federal and state grants.

    ·    Integrate services to better address social determinants of health.

    ·    Declare a human services state of emergency.

    ·    Improve surveillance and data infrastructure.

    ·    Increase focus on addressing environmental health.

    ·    Recognize the importance of the healthcare workforce.

    The report says the goal of healthcare reform in the city should focus on addressing longstanding racial inequities in the health system.

    “We envision a Chicago in which all of the health and human services needs of our constituents are anticipated and met throughout a person’s life and in which each person is provided the specific support they need to grow, thrive, and live healthfully.

     Read the full report here

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  • 10 Jul 2023 5:44 PM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    It’s been three years since healthcare organizations and industry groups across the country made promises to achieve health equity.

    Lessons learned and experience shared here.

    Listen to the full podcast to hear more details. 

    Made in the wake of a national racial reckoning—driven in part by George Floyd’s murder and the stark racial disparities made evident by COVID-19—these commitments zeroed in on how organizations can weave health equity into their everyday work.

    At Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, that meant building out a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. The organization started its change toward stronger health equity focuses at the top with leadership, but then moved throughout the organization to build out a committee that would be multifaceted.

    More> 

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  • 7 Jul 2023 12:26 PM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to bring awareness to the unique struggles that racial and ethnic minority communities face regarding mental illness in the United States.

    According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2021, it was estimated that only 39 percent of Black or African American adults, 25 percent of Asian adults, and 36 percent of Hispanic/Latino adults with any mental illness were treated, compared to 52 percent of non-Hispanic white adults.

    More>

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  • 6 Jul 2023 11:59 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

    There’s no question that the next version of the COVID-19 vaccine in the US will contain

    components of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.

    What’s still up in the air, though, is who should get the shot when it debuts this fall.

    On June 15, members of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted unanimously to recommend updating the COVID-19 vaccine composition to a monovalent XBB lineage.

    On June 16, the FDA announced that it had advised manufacturers planning to update their COVID-19 vaccines that they should specifically target XBB.1.5. Scientists from Moderna, Novavax, and Pfizer had told the FDA and its advisory committee that their XBB.1.5 monovalent vaccines could be ready to inject into arms by late July or early fall.

    More>

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