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Cook County Hospital Chief Leaves Post

Interim Board President Bobbie Steele Asks For Daniel Winship's Resignation

(CBS) CHICAGO The chief of the Cook County hospital system resigned Thursday after about two years.

Dr. Daniel Winship was appointed to head up the county Bureau of Health Services by then-County Board President John Stroger in 2004.

Winship earned $270,000 a year as head of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, which had an $830 million budget for fiscal year 2006.

Stroger resigned in July, four months after suffering a stroke. His interim replacement, Bobbie Steele (D-2nd), has been critical of officials in the health bureau.

County commissioners are especially upset about the system's multimillion dollar deficit and feel not enough patient revenues are being collected to make up for declining Medicaid payments.

At a news conference Thursday, Steele said while the quality of the system's health care is wonderful, its financial condition is "dismal."

She said she asked for Winship's resignation because "there are deficiencies that we think we can overcome with new leadership . . . deficiencies that were pointed out over the years: billing, collections and the like."

But she praised Winship as a "fine man" of high integrity and said he had made progress "under challenging circumstances." She especially cited his work in implementing the county's first-ever mail-order prescription program, easing a nursing shortage, and boosting efforts to create electronic medical records for all patients.

Steele appointed two doctors currently working for the county -- Carolyn C. Lopez and Linda Rae Murray -- to serve as interim co-chiefs of the health bureau.

In a phone interview Thursday, Winship, 73, said he was "really proud of everything I accomplished during my tenure."

He said while he had a lot of responsibility, he did not feel like he had much authority -- especially over personnel decisions, which largely were made by the county board president's office.

Winship said the bureau's financial and billing systems are archaic and will need to be brought into the "modern health care world" for its financial situation to improve.

In past county budget fights, Stroger and hospital administrators said cuts to the county’s $3 billion budget were the reason for service problems at the hospital.

But some commissioners, including Republican County Board presidential candidate Tony Peraica (R-16th) and county Commissioner Forrest Claypool (D-12th), who ran against the elder Stroger in the primary, have said redundant positions and departments in the hospital system, and alleged patronage jobs, have bloated the county budget and caused problems and made it difficult for the hospitals to function.

Peraica is pitted in the County Board presidential race against John Stroger’s son, Ald. Todd Stroger (8th). Steele and Claypool are both running for reelection in their commissioner seats.

The Bureau of Health Services is the single largest unit of county government and serves thousands of needy county residents, many of whom lack private health insurance.

It includes Stroger Hospital, which opened in 2002, as well as Provident Hospital on the South Side, Oak Forest Hospital in the south suburbs, an extensive network of community clinics; and medical services at the county jail.

Source: CBS 2 News Web site