Don't dismantle proven success
There is much debate over whether the Kane County Health Department will continue to offer a range of state-funded medical and other services, primarily for at-risk women and children. As a family in doctor in Elgin for the past 25 years and as a longtime member and past chair of the Kane County Health Department Advisory Committee, I have a unique perspective and long association with these programs.
When I completed my residency at Cook County Hospital and began practicing in this area in 1985, Kane County did not even have a health department. For three years I was one of just two doctors who provided all the indigent prenatal care in Aurora. A patchwork of nonprofit agencies struggled valiantly to provide necessary public health services. There were problems of coordination, communication, personnel and funds. In 1988 our county started on the journey of building a health department. Its first director, Dr. Richard Bodie, started the program that is now known as Family Case Management. It is one of the seven programs now slated for outsourcing by health department management.
Family Case Management has provided thousands of women with entry into the health care system. It is a public-private partnership in which the health department helps the patient with public aid applications, nutrition assistance and other case management services, but the private doctors or clinics give the medical care. It is an undeniable success: timely access to prenatal care has helped the infant mortality rate in this county plummet by more than 10 points in the past 20 years.
I understand the health department's concern regarding delays in payment from the state. But I also remember how hard it was back when many little agencies tried to do bits and pieces of the health department's job. It did not work as well as the system we have now.
We have come a long way in Kane County, and we should not turn back now. A strong and comprehensive public health department is easy to dismantle, but it would be very hard to rebuild.
Dr. Dorothea Poulos
Elgin