Advocate North Side Health Network

“Description of board delegating powers to executive committee the organization's by-laws provide that the executive committee has the authority to act on behalf of the board. The executive committee has the same composition and members as the executive committee of the corporate member. The corporate member's executive committee has nine members, consisting of the chairperson, the vice chairperson, the president, the chairpersons of the finance, planning health outcomes and mission and spiritual care committees, and two other directors. The past chairperson of the board of directors may serve as an ex-officio member of the committee, with vote. Each of the executive committee's members is on the board. The scope of the executive committee's authority includes: be responsible for planning educational programs for the board of directors; conduct an evaluation of the members of the board of directors; have such authority as shall be delegated by the board of directors; and act on behalf of the board of directors between meetings. The executive committee is accountable as a body to the board of directors.”

“Description of business relationships as dr. James dan, dr. Vincent bufalino, dr. Lee sacks, james doheny, dominic nakis, scott powder and william santulli are either directors or officers of wholly owned advocate entities, they are deemed to have a business relationship pursuant to the instructions for form 990.”

“Members or stockholders the by-laws provide for corporate members.”

“Description of classes of persons and the nature of their rights the not-for-profit corporations of advocate health care, with the exception of advocate health care network, have corporate members who elect directors. Advocate health care network does not have any members, therefore, the ahcn board elects its directors. The for-profit organizations have a sole shareholder who elects the directors.”

“Description of classes of persons, decisions requiring approval and type of voting rights the following reserve powers identified in the bylaws require the approval of the corporate member, advocate health care network: appoint outside auditors and establish and revise all financial control policies, and any changes to such policies, before such policies or changes become effective; cause the corporation to pay, loan or otherwise transfer property and funds to other entities affiliated with the corporate member; amend the bylaws without action or approval by the board of directors after ten days notice to the corporation's board of directors of the proposed amendment(s) with an opportunity for board members to consult with the corporate member regarding the proposed amendment; approval of the overall mission, philosophy and values statements and any amendments or supplements to such statements; approval of the overall strategic plans; approval of all overall operating and capital budgets before any expenditure, pursuant to such budgets are made or committed, and approval of all expenditures above any limit that may be established by the board of the corporate member; approval of the incurrence or guarantee of any indebtedness for borrowed money which has not already been approved as part of the budget approval process or which is above any limit that may be established by the board of the corporate member; approval of all transfers of ownership or donations of assets above any limit that may be established by the board of the corporate member; approval of all amendments to the articles of incorporation and bylaws of the corporation before they become effective; approval of any merger, consolidation, or dissolution; and approval of the creation of or affiliation with any subsidiary or affiliate, before such entity is created or the entrance into any joint venture if the contemplated activity will involve the expenditure of funds or the assumption of obligations which have not already been approved as a part of the budget approval process or require member approval under the financial control policies.”

“Description of the process used by management and/or governing body to review 990 advocate's tax preparation process includes ongoing consultation with its outside tax consulting firm and tax legal counsel, both of which possess expertise in health care and tax-exempt return preparation, to advise and assist with preparation of the form 990. These advisors worked closely with the organization's finance, tax and legal associates and other members of the organization's team assembled to participate in the preparation of the form 990. The form 990 is reviewed by finance management, the tax manager, the vp of finance/corporate controller, the chief financial officer and advocate's outside tax consulting firm and tax legal counsel. Prior to presenting the form 990 to the board of director's audit committee in november, the organization's team and advisors met frequently to discuss and review drafts of the form 990. At the november audit committee meeting, the vp of finance/corporate controller and chief financial officer coordinated a review of the form 990 with committee members, as the audit committee is the committee of the board of directors charged with oversight of audit and tax matters. The vp of finance/corporate controller and chief financial officer responded to the audit committee members' questions and provided the opportunity for detailed discussion of the form 990. The changes identified were incorporated, and then a complete copy of the final form 990 was provided to each member of the organization's board of directors before the form 990 was filed.”

“Description of the process to monitor transactions for conflicts of interest the organization's conflict of interest policy applies to various people, including members of advocate's board of directors, governing councils, officers, associates, volunteers, and medical staff members with administrative responsibilities. Annually, the compliance department sends this policy and the advocate code of business conduct to a range of individuals who may be in a position to exercise substantial interest over a particular matter (defined as "interested persons"). They are required to read the policies and provide a disclosure statement to the compliance department, which identifies activities and relationships that could potentially give rise to a conflict of interest. The chief compliance officer reviews the disclosure and provides a report to the system business conduct (compliance) committee, executive management team and the audit committee of the board for review. The report is then provided, in relevant part, to the site chief executive officers. Potential conflicts are reviewed by the compliance department on a case by case basis. Follow up procedures conducted are unique to the given circumstance, and may include reviewing the potential conflict with the interested person, or investigating the matter in consultation with the interested person's supervisor and/or site management. In circumstances where the interested person is not a member of the board, or governing council, or committee thereof, or a person of interest, if it is determined that there is an actual conflict of interest, the supervisor of the individual is responsible for making an appropriate response, potentially including a restriction of the individual's job duties with respect to the matter giving rise to the conflict.”

“Offices and positions for which process was used and year process was begun executive compensation at the advocate health care network and subsidiaries is based on a board of directors' approved strategy that guides the corporation in establishing compensation opportunities for executives, managers, professionals, and all employees. In this strategy, specific market comparisons are identified and the desired level of competitiveness in those markets specified. In addition, the linkage of executive pay to performance is articulated and how this relationship is to be maintained is outlined. To support and implement the compensation strategy, five basic elements are utilized. These elements are: - a solid, reliable and tested job evaluation methodology - accurate, quality and relevant compensation survey information - a consistent annual process for updating the compensation levels - an active board review process that assures compliance with the compensation strategy and on-going review of the performance of the organization, and - active, external review and auditing of compensation by external independent consultants.”

“Availability of governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements to the general public the organization makes its financial statements available to the public through the following sites: - dacbond.com (digital assurance certification, llc) - emma.msrb.org (electronic municipal market access) the organization does not make its governing document or conflict of interest policy available to the public.”

“Commitment to the community advocate illinois masonic is dedicated to maintaining a strong presence within its community and continues to monitor expenditures to make certain that the programs and services supported are in direct response to community need. In 2022, the medical center provided over $54.6 million in community benefit programs and services. These benefits included not only the cost of financial assistance and unreimbursed medicaid and medicare, for example, but also the cost for implementing and sustaining programs specifically designed to meet the health care needs of the community. Community health strategy and examples of programs and services accomplishments as a medical center within the advocate aurora system, advocate illinois masonic's implementation plans and strategies align with the advocate aurora system strategy. Through this community strategy, the medical center will build health equity, ensure access and improve health outcomes in its community through evidence-informed services and innovative partherships by addressing medical needs and social determinants. Based on need and effect on health equity as identified in the advocate aurora hospitals chna reports and on industry literature, the following six focus areas have been prioritized, from which each individual advocate aurora hospitals' community implemenation plan is built: 1) access to primary medical homes; 2) access to behavioral health services; 3) workforce development; 4) community safety; 5) affordable housing; and 6) workforce development. Each strateg focus area and examples of advocate illinois masonic programs addressing it are provided below. 1. Access/primary medical homes. Advocate illinois masonic is committed to undertaking and supporting initiatives that enhance access to health care, including not only financial assistance as indicated earlier for item 4.a, but also care coordination, language assistance, culturally sensitive provision of care, and prevention education and wellness services across the lifespan and within the diverse communities the medical center serves. Some examples of such programs provided by the medical center include the following. Transition support program. The transition support program (tsp) is a navigation service that assists with the coordination of follow-up care for patients with challenges navigating health services. Prior to the project, advocate illinois masonic's community health council identified chronic disease management as a key health disparity for its primary service area (psa). The community health needs assessment concluded that patients in the medical center's psa with chronic illnesses experience significant barriers navigating the health care system, including barriers related to referrals, appointments, insurance, transportation, language and medication access. By providing strength-building and culturally and linguistically- competent navigation of a complex health care system, the tsp aims to reduce readmissions and emergency room visits and improve care transitions across the continuum for patients and families, regardless of insurance or circumstance.the program connects patients without primary care providers to health centers with advocate aurora health adn the surrounding community. In 2022, the program connected 2,214 uniunsured and low-income patients to primary care providers and services. Illinois oral health programs. Advocate illinois masonic provides two dental programs focused on improving access to oral health services. The mobile dentistry program brings oral health care services to underserved and uninsured populations, including low-income children and families, people experiencing homelessness, older adults and persons with special needs at 18 different locations across the community. The special needs dentistry program provides access to oral health for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Most dentists lack the training or equipment neede”

“Healthy families. The advocate illinois masonic healthy families program is a support program for young parents, providing intensive home visiting services for at-risk families. The program model is rooted in the belief that early, nurturing relationships are the foundation for life-long, healthy development. The program provides three key services: 1) free prenatal classes open to the community; 2) doula services providing home visits and on-call labor/delivery support; and 3) parent coaching home visitation for up to the first three years of a child's life. All services are grant-funded, free to the community and available in english/spanish. Language assistance/interpreter services. Advocate illinois masonic provides care for patients from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In order to meet the unique communication needs of populations accessing care at the medical center, advocate illinois masonic employs spanish, polish and american sign language interpreters to provide interpretation services as needed. In addition, as with all hospitals in the system, advocate illinois masonic offers telephonic and/or video interpreting in more than 200 languages. In 2022, the medical center provided language assistance services to a total of 89,498 patient/family encounters. 2. Access/behavioral health servicesadvocate illinois masonic has also implemented several programs focused on improving the continuum of care for the benefit of mental health and behavioral health patients. First access. Given the high number of admissions and ed visits for behavioral health conditions at advocate illinois masonic and the high number of discharged patients that were not keeping their outpatient follow-up appointments, the hospital's behavioral health department created the first access program in 2013. The goal of first access is to provide immediate access to follow-up behavioral health services to support recovery and prevent relapses. Through first access, behavioral health ed patients, as well as patients referred by the hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit, medical floors and physicians, are literally walked over to outpatient care by a staff member to ensure same day follow-up for outpatient appointments. Since its implementation, first access has consistently increased behavioral health patients' appointment follow-through rates from 40 percent in 2013 to 100% in 2019; all discharged patients received warm hand-offs to behavioral health services and left with an outpatient plan of carewe continue this practice. Having achieved that, first access started to focus on providing access to care to all advocate aurora patients and its volumes grew steadily and in 2022 first access provided 1826 new-patient intakes. Deaf and hard of hearing program. Advocate illinois masonic's deaf and hard of hearing program provides comprehensive mental health care in american sign language (asl) to deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind children, adolescents and adults in the six-county chicago region. The program offers a continuum of care that includes clinical assessments; pre-screenings and linkage; individual, family and group therapy; psychiatric evaluations and medication monitoring; and intervention with a 24-hour phone line connected to a text telephone (tty) system. A tele-psychiatry network enables the provision of otherwise scarce deaf-friendly psychiatric services in the homes of deaf patients who have received the free videophone equipment and services supported by the federal communications commission (fcc). A health education website allows users to watch videos, link to other asl videos and/or to order free asl health education dvds. Over the years, the hospital has distributed several thousand free asl dvds on hiv/aids, stds, breast health, diabetes, depression and smoking cessation. In 2022, bhs provided 1537 services to 84 dhoh patients, with 1380 offered by the asl-fluent staff and 157 services using accommodation. 12 patients o”

“4. Community safetythe medical center also works with community partners to address community safetya social determinant of health. Some examples are provided below. Advocate trauma recovery center (trc). The trc is a health care-based violence intervention program that provides social and behavioral health services, individual and group therapeutic services, and psychiatric consultation to survivors of intentional crime and/or trauma. The purpose is to aid individuals who have experienced trauma in rebuilding, restoring and strengthening their sense of safety by ending the cycle of violence. The trc provides access to trauma-informed care by acknowledging how past and present traumatic experiences and stress may impact the individuals and families servedresponding to the unique needs of each survivor and their family. The trc program began at advocate christ medical center in 2019. In late 2022, the trc program expanded its services to advocate condell medical center and advocate illinois masonic through support from the illinois criminal justice information authority. Disaster coordination. Advocate illinois masonic's emergency medical services staff train city and private ambulance and fire department paramedics. As one of only eleven hospitals in illinois designated as a resource hospital coordination center (rhcc), the medical center is responsible for coordinating medical response within a densely populated region of chicago. This includes coordinating emergency medical response efforts at major events, such as the chicago marathon and during visits of national and international leaders. The hospital also serves as the lead hospital for disasters occurring in chicago, including o'hare airport. 5. Housing data indicates that poor quality housing is associated with various negative health coutcomes, including chronic disease, injury, and poor mental health. Advocate illinois masonic is working with community partners to address housing with the goal of providing a safe and healthy place to live and to convalesce. This supports the advocate aurora systemwide goal to decrease the number of ed patients who are screened positive for homelessness by 5% by 2025. The following are examples of the medical center's efforts to address this sdoh. Flexible housing pool. As indicated in part vi, question 5. Promotion of community health, the flexible housing pool at advocate illinois masonic is a partnership with the center for health and housing with the goal to reduce hospital and ems recidivism through housing. In 2019, advocate aurora health made a $500,000 commitment to the cook county flexible housing pool. Advocate illinois masonic was the first hospital to participate in the cook county flexible housing pool, a partnership with the center for health and housing. In 2022, the program transition to the trauma recovery center team, based out of advocate christ medical center. This program aims to address housing insecurity among homeless patients by placing individuals in permanent housing while also providing wrap around care, including case management and behavioral health services. The main goal of this program is to address one of the most significant root causes of poor health. While this program serves a small number of patients, the impact is deep and lifelong. In 2020, the program placed one behavioral health patient in permanent housing and three patients in transitional housing. In 2021, a total of five individuals were placed in housing; the program placed four behavioral health patients in permanent housing and one patient in transitional housing. In 2022, under the trauma recovery center management, the program was able to place three patients into long term housing within 6 weeks. Since 2020, the program has been able to assist 11 patients with housing related concerns. 6. Food securityaccess to fresh, affordable food is a key ingredient in the recipe to address social determinants of healthand in keeping the communi”

“Other fees: program service expenses 0. Management and general expenses 92,814,909. Fundraising expenses 0. Total expenses 92,814,909.”

“Capital transfers - grants 304,862. Intercompany noncontrolling interest -311,910.”