Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) held a press conference April 16 to provide updates about its financial status and its plans for providing medical care. The event was held at its 4025 N. Sheridan Road location.
The presentation included key Howard Brown personnel, such as Jamal Edwards, CEO and president of HBHC; Wil Raj, vice president and chief administrative officer; Kristin Keglovitz Baker, medical director; Lowell Raven, senior director, finance and accounting and controller; and Michael McFadden, director of social services and community health services.
Edwards spoke of HBHC "working hard to resolve its financial issue" as well as to the ways that the organization is making changes in its methods of patient outreach including, according to him, the elimination of the waiting list. He and subsequent presenters emphasized the use of new technology and that HBHC is moving into a "patient-centered" model that would strive to cover peoples' needs from "birth to the end of their lives."
Keglovitz Baker referred to an "interdisciplinary care model" that would include spiritual counseling and pediatric care, as well as to the increased used of hand-held electronic tablets. According to her and Raj, these, already in use by many of the providers, provide them instantaneous access to patient records.
Their use is especially significant in medical-crisis situations, when they can be used to quickly send necessary information to emergency rooms. The tablets are also part of an integrated care model; social workers can now instantly upload their information to medical providers without waiting to file paper reports. Patients will also be able to use online forms to communicate directly with their doctors.
When Windy City Times asked about low-income patients with limited online access, Raj said that their needs would be seen to through the use of computer banks and kiosks on the premises and ensuring that their needs were also being met by medical professionals.
McFadden spoke of continuing what he described as HBHC's ongoing commitment to providing a range of services rooted in community needs. Using the Broadway Youth Center as an example, he said that program was a model for community-based interventions that could be applied to all other facets of HBHC care.
WCT asked about recent stories about BYC's move from its Lakeview locale. Edwards responded that HBHC was "not in a position to address that in any great level of detail." Calling BYC "one of Howard Brown's crown jewels," he added that "how we go about serving LGBT youth" would have to shift with respect to changing issues in healthcare but that HBHC's commitment to them would remain.
Raven spoke of the changes to financial reporting and accounting within HBHC. He said that in addition to the treasurer sending financial reports to the board, "We are very good about sending monthly financial internal documents to the programmatic directors." He pointed out that the FY11 audit was now available on the website, and that where the FY10 deficit was more than 2.1 million, 2011 saw a surplus of 1.2 million.
Responding to a question about Illinois possibly facing cuts to Medicaid patient spending, Edwards said that while this was a concern, "we have taken other steps by looking at fundraising efforts, our pharmacy program [which is federally funded] and Brown Elephant sales."
In response to a question about whether the organization had cut programs to ensure what it touted as massive cuts in spending, Edwards was less clear about specifics. He gave an example of the expenses related to the MACS grant which has been transitioned to Northwestern University. However, to the best of WCT's knowledge, and he did not dispute this, those expenses were, in fact, already built into the grant.
As WCT has already reported, HBHC's spending cuts apparently include cutting healthcare for Brown Elephant employees by making many of their positions part-time; the organization has yet to provide details about this.
