Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1994 [PAGE 55]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1994]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

43

First, Dr. Haussmann told the board that several television commercials had been produced regarding services of the hospital and the expertise of certain University physicians. These had begun to be aired on September 12, 1994, on several Chicago area stations. He then showed the board members the commercials. Ms. Lopez suggested that these be shown on more Spanish language stations. Second, Dr. Haussmann presented a performance report for the hospital and clinics. This report included data on budget facts in a lineby-line fashion and comparisons of patient census information over the last two years. In this he also presented a report on the Medical Service Plan. Third, he turned to a report on the status of the budget for Mile Square Health Center. He explained the difference between the fiscal year dates followed by the University and those followed by the City of Chicago — the owner of Mile Square Health Center. This accounted for several differences that otherwise were not clear. Fourth, Dr. Haussmann reported to the board the status of the cooperative agreement with EHS, Inc. He summarized the goals of this as well as strategies and tactics envisioned. He indicated that he may have something more definite to share with the board soon. Fifth, he discussed the inefficiency of the current arrangement of clinics at the campus and concluded that a new ambulatory care facility was needed. He presented a schedule for approvals for such a new facility through and including dates for bids for construction. He said that he hoped work could be started in Fall 1995. He said that revenues from the Medical Service Plan and revenue bonds as well as hospital savings could pay for this. The hospital savings would come from reallocations or savings from the operations improvement program. A brief discussion followed about an item in the regular agenda of the board concerning contracts with agencies for temporary staffing of nurses. Ms. Reese was very concerned about the delay in bringing the contracts to the board and voiced criticism of some points of management control in the hospital. Dr. Haussmann indicated that steps had been taken to ensure against such a failure of internal controls again. Ms. Reese noted that she was very disappointed with the manner in which these contracts had been handled and found the hospital administration remiss in not bringing these to the board in a timely way. She added several comments about how difficult she found it to deal with the problems of the hospital and cited several events of the last five years that she considered sufficiently instructive to aid all staff in avoiding problems such as the contract error. Dr. Bacon opined that human error was involved in the delay of the contracts and that there was no major flaw in the intentions of the hospital staff. President Ikenberry referred to the several points in the report just presented by Dr. Haussmann that stressed recent positive developments and stated that trust of the hospital administration seemed merited. Dr. Haussmann