The March of Dimes will recognize a distinguished group of maternal and child health leaders at the annual Jonas Salk Health Leadership Awards Luncheon to be held Wednesday, September 28, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 East Wacker Drive.

This year's honorees are:

Health Care Management Honoree: KATHLEEN DEVINE, Chief Executive Officer at Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago. Devine has worked throughout her career to provide care to a growing number of Chicago's poorest, most health-challenged residents. To Devine, better health for women, babies, children, and families is not her business objective, it's her mission.

Physician Honoree: JUDA JONA, M.D., of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. Dr. Jona joined the staff of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in 1995 as Chief of Pediatric Surgery where he has been providing superb clinical care to babies in Chicago, Evanston, and the surrounding suburbs. Patients, parents and healthcare teams marvel at Dr. Jona's expertise and professionalism. Over the past few years, Dr. Jona has organized an exchange program for Romanian physicians. These professionals come to Evanston Northwestern Healthcare for advance training and education, staying in Dr. Jona's home. He also organized a system that sends unused neonatal ventilators to Romania where they ate used in the intensive care units. Dr. Jona leads by example and contributes directly to the well being of infants and mothers on a daily basis.

Community/Public Health Honoree: ERLINDA CABANA, MD, MPH, of Cicero Health Center of Cook County in Lemont. Dr. Cabana is a pediatrician who has devoted her entire career as a public servant. She has served the community for over 33 years and continues to care for the poor and minorities through direct patient care. Her abilities have helped improve the health care of infants and children in many ways. In 1998, Dr. Cabana joined the Cook County Hospital as a service physician to provide primary care. Her skills were quickly recognized and she was promoted to Senior Attending. Currently she is the Medical Director of the Cicero Heath Center of Cook County. Dr. Cabana has made a significant impact on the services provided to many families.

Research Honoree: DEBRA WEESE-MAYER, M.D., of Rush Medical College in Chicago. Dr. Debra Weese-Mayer is a gifted researcher in the field of pediatrics and has advanced the understanding and management in cases of sudden infant death syndrome and hypoventilation. She is nationally known and respected not only for her research but also her clinical work. Dr. Weese-Mayer has been a professor of Pediatrics at Rush Medical College, Rush University since 1995 and has worked as the Section Chief of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine since 1993.

Nursing Honoree: KIM ARMOUR, RN, RNP, of Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. Armour is a life-long advocate for pregnant women, especially those with high-risk pregnancies. She works in the Department of Maternal-fetal Medicine making sure that patient care proceeds smoothly, while leading a staff of 8-10 other healthcare providers. Armour builds close bonds with patients and their families to help relieve the stress that is experienced in high-risk pregnancies. She is a role model for new nurses, an advocate for patients, and a great colleague.

The March of Dimes is excited to honor these professionals for their life long work that has improved the health of mothers and children in Chicago and the suburbs.

Tickets for the luncheon event are $85 a person. Tickets can be purchased on the March of Dimes website, www.marchofdimes.com/illinois. For more information, contact Jennie Pinkwater at (312) 596-4709 or jpinkwater@marchofdimes.com.

Physician recruiters have been known to spend what could be weeks or months trying to find the best candidate to fill an open position within a hospital. They interview, screen, negotiate, and then boom--the candidate accepts the job, and the recruiter’s work is done. Or is it?

After working with several of Chicagoland’s best physician recruiters, Tricia McEneaney, Manager of Corporate Services at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, has found that, "It’s not that simple." McEneaney states, "In addition to the numerous responsibilities a physician recruiter is held accountable for, they also get slammed with all sorts of questions relating to the new hires’ actual relocation." She quotes, "New hires often request housing assistance, moving and storage assistance, school information, and the list goes on."

Coldwell Banker Relocation Services has been able to work in partnership with a variety of Chicagoland’s hospitals to fill that void by offering an a-la-carte menu of relocation services to hospitals and their physician recruiters. The menu consists of pre-move counseling, area tour service, home-finding assistance, customized relocation packages with a state of the art "Welcome to Chicago" CD-Rom, and more. Each physician recruiter selects the services that best suits their needs, and then takes advantage of the services via one point of coordination at Coldwell Banker Relocation Services.

The mission of Access Community Health Network (ACCESS) is to provide high quality, cost effective, safe, comprehensive, primary and preventive health care in underserved Chicagoland communities.

It is this mission that drove ACCESS, in early 2004, to develop and implement the first-ever Performance Based Compensation Program for community health centers. The goal of this program was to create a system of compensation that would improve productivity and quality, while also increasing the scope of care without risk. This bold business strategy boosts ACCESS into the next generation of preventive care and sets the bar for other community health care organizations.

The program demands increased doctor ownership of health center management and patient health, resulting in higher quality, cost-effective preventive health care in Chicago’s underserved communities as well as an improved bottom line for ACCESS.

How does this groundbreaking program work?

• All full-time ACCESS doctors realized a nearly 25 percent base salary cut. ACCESS’ strategy? Increase the number of patients each doctor serves per year by implementing a per-visit bonus system of pay, based on specialty. ACCESS now pays doctors $12 to $60 per patient encounter.
• ACCESS created a leading-edge incentive program for doctors to complete quality procedures – acts that enable physicians to diagnose, prevent and often lessen the severity of illnesses sooner. Each time a doctor completes a quality procedure, such as screening for perinatal depression, working with patients to create asthma action plans or offering smoking cessation counseling, he or she is credited $5 toward a "compensation bank."
• ACCESS sets annual goals for doctors/patient encounters and quality procedures. If doctors do not meet the goals – a decision reached through a unique peer review program – ACCESS can reclaim up to $15,000 of a doctor’s salary. However, physicians are limited to 8,000 patient visits annually (four patients per hour per physician) to ensure quality.
• A base salary is set up for each provider at the beginning of the year. Every quarter, providers’ salaries are reconciled against their encounters and quality procedures. If after reconciliation, the provider is owed money, he or she receives a check for that amount at the end of the quarter. If the provider owes money, it is rolled over until the end of the year. If the provider still owes money at the end of the year, it will be taken out of his or her base salary for the next year and recouped gradually over 12 months.
• Once a month, doctors receive reports on individual productivity and quality procedures. They also receive quarterly reports on overall quality of care, patient satisfaction and citizenship. This allows doctors to keep track of their progress toward their goal.
• Providers working at the same location also can choose to be compensated as a team. In this case, a team must submit a plan for income sharing at the beginning of the year. All members of the team are accountable for quality. This option truly encourages teamwork.

Just one year later, the results are clear. Despite salary cuts and more stringent rules, ACCESS retained nearly 100 percent of its doctors. ACCESS also increased the volume of patient encounters by 18 percent and increased physician salaries by 14 percent.

"Even though it took some time getting used to this new program, we are seeing the real benefits for our staff and our patients," said Dr. Abdel Fahmy, internist, at ACCESS’ Austin Family Health Center. "This goal-oriented program encourages a truly preventive approach to health care."

Have ACCESS patients seen a difference?

ACCESS patients are benefiting, too. Over the past year, for example, 50 percent more patients were preventively diagnosed with depression, and 25 percent more patients were diagnosed with alcohol and drug abuse. Early detection equals more effective treatment options and empowers patients to take charge of their own health.

The results of ACCESS’ Performance Based Compensation Program have been astounding. It is a progressive business move that solidifies ACCESS’ position as the model of innovation in the community health care field. This program also exemplifies the need for and benefits of patient self health care management.