Board to hear health bureau options

Cook County commissioners will get their first look today at a report by President Todd Stroger's blue-ribbon panel formed to assess options with the county health bureau.

The panel will deliver its report to the board at 10 a.m. in the county board room.

It is the second set of recommendations on the health bureau the board will receive this week. The first, from a consortium of health advocacy and union groups, recommends temporary receivership for the hospitals and clinics to restore credibility to the beleaguered bureau that saw massive cuts last year.

The blue-ribbon panel, on the other hand, is expected to recommend -- or at least lay out the option of -- permanently putting the bureau under an independent board.

The panel is chaired by the head of Rush University Medical Center, Larry J. Goodman.