Northwest Community to set up clinic at Little City

Little City Foundation in Palatine has launched an initiative aimed at improving access to health care for its 350 residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights will become the agency's health-care provider and staff a health clinic on Little City's campus.

"We need to step forward and change the culture," said Northwest Community President and CEO Bruce Crowther. "There's a huge population in the area that basically isn't getting good health care."

Immediate improvements will be made to Little City's existing health clinic, with the possibility of building a new facility on campus in the future.

The endeavor will start modestly with a hospital-employed dentist providing dental care in a mobile unit. Until now, many Little City residents had to travel to Rockford to find an office specifically trained to work with the population.

Northwest Community will next work to set up a nursing program to offer primary care. An advance practice nurse qualified to provide early care, triage and assessment will most likely head the operation.

Little City currently staffs nurses at its clinic, but frequent vacancies mean hiring expensive agency nurses who change day to day and aren't necessarily trained in special patient needs. Visiting physicians also see residents, but their availability is limited.

Little City Executive Director Shawn Jeffers said it can be difficult to assess health problems in nonverbal residents, which results in staff members waiting too long to take action or unnecessary trips to the emergency room.

The longer-term plan is for the clinic to expand beyond Little City clientele and serve other disabled residents in the region.

"It's difficult to work with this population -- maybe they're disruptive in the office or something -- so many primary care providers avoid the whole thing," Crowther said. "Our commitment is not just to Little City but to this population."

About 80,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities live within a 15-mile radius of Little City, said Ron Buch, the hospital's executive director of community health and outreach.

In 2007, Northwest Community spent more than $2 million in subsidized health-care services such as community-based health clinics, education programs and senior services.