Cook County Health and Hospitals System Recognizes Richton Park Resident

Tuesday C. Rooney, of Richton Park, is one of 14 staff members recently recognized by the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) for completing the System’s Leadership Development Program (LDP). This selective program identifies up-and-coming staff members and provides them with training and resources to hone their leadership skills.

Rooney, a Physical Therapy Supervisor at the Oak Forest Health Center Rehabilitation Department, underwent three months of training on strategies and skills to successfully create excellent patient experiences. In addition, participants developed unique projects to implement these approaches into everyday practice. Rooney’s project focused on improving patient attendance rates for appointments.

"This program is an integral part of our system-wide patient experience initiative. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, many of our patients now have choice in where they can seek medical care. We want to earn the privilege of being their provider of choice. By lifting up some of our most promising team members, we hope to empower them to be agents of change as we continue to improve our patients' interactions with CCHHS," said Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO, CCHHS.

LDP is an empowerment program that helps managers grasp and understand the heart of CCHHS. It demonstrates that staff engagement is achievable and is the best way to ensure excellence in patient care and satisfaction.

LDP lesson topics included motivating staff, providing feedback, managing a diverse workforce, ensuring quality and safety, managing performance expectations and leading through difficult situations. Since the program was initiated in Fall of 2013, over 60 leaders have completed the program.

The Oak Forest Health Center of Cook County is a unique outpatient healthcare facility located on a spacious 340 acre campus in Oak Forest, serving south suburban and south city residents of Cook County. Oak Forest Health Center in conjunction with Ambulatory and Community Health Network Clinics provides a full range of outpatient services as well as support to three primary care and community-based outpatient clinics located in Ford Heights, Phoenix and Robbins.