Residents using Provident Hospital's emergency room as their source of primary care may get relief within the next year due to a collaboration with the University of Chicago Hospitals.
The South Side private hospital system is putting up $5 million–matching a proposed $5 million in state funds–to house a clinic inside Provident, one of the hospitals in the Cook County Dept. of Public Health system.
“They (University of Chicago) has the first busiest emergency room on the South Side. We have the second busiest. Many of the patients that come through our emergency rooms need things addressed such as a cold. They come through the E.R. because they don't have a physician,” said Sidney Thomas, the chief operating officer of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System.
Provident, in the Washington Park community, sees on average 45,000 patients in the emergency room each year and has been in discussion with the U of C., in neighboring Hyde Park, about how to better serve many of the area's uninsured patients. Both hospitals are less than two miles apart.
Non-emergency care clogs the emergency room, taking away from time needed for those who come in by ambulance. Partnering with the university's Urban Health Initiative, a four-year program focused on guiding patients in need of basic, routine treatment to clinics closeby is a good start, said Thomas.
“The idea is to build up access to primary health care on the South Side. Urban Health Initiative was spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama when she was on staff at the university,” said state Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-13th), who lobbied for the state funds.
Eric Whitaker, M.D., an executive vice president at private hospital, heads UHI.
The $10 million, once the state's budget is approved, will be used to renovate the first floor of the Sengstacke building that's adjacent to Provident. The building is partially occupied by the medical records department. The hospital's old pharmacy was also housed there before a new one was opened last year.
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