Page 7 – Aunt Martha's

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Last Wednesday evening, Aunt Martha’s hosted many of the agency’s closest friends and strongest supporters at our 49th Anniversary Fundraiser event. We welcomed friends from: Iowa and Indiana; from communities across central and northern Illinois like Champaign, Bourbonnais, Joliet and Berwyn; from Peoria to Rockford, from Frankfort to Wilmette; and from all around Chicago – from the far South Side to Hyde Park, the South Loop and Downtown, to Logan Square, Humboldt Park, to the West Side and to the North Side.

For some the event was an introduction to Aunt Martha’s. For others, it was a reminder of what sets us apart. From my perspective, it was important that each of our guests, and you, know that the agency you turn to, partner with and support is committed to being the very best at what we do.

In fact, we learned this month that Aunt Martha’s has been recognized for the 5^th straight year as a National Quality Leader. We’re proud of that work, and we’re proud of the people and organizations we work alongside. We’ve worked hard and been fortunate to find partners who share our vision. And we have worked hard to find partners who share our commitment to value.

Value. This is how we judge ourselves. This is what our integrated model is designed to create, by:

Enabling care teams to work together to achieve top quartile quality outcomes; and,

Driving down the cost of care – so much, in fact, that in calendar year 2020 Aunt Martha’s cost per patient was close to 50% lower than the national average (for health centers).

Ultimately, the event was it was an opportunity to share the story of our employees – their hard work, heart and heroism. But my words were not the only ones our guests heard. We also shared a new video with them, which I am proud to share with you today.

Please take a few minutes to watch. It is both a tribute and a renewed call to action. It reminds us how far we’ve come in 49 years, and it offers a glimpse ahead – to the next leg of our journey, to the hard work will do together as we write the next chapter of Aunt Martha’s story. And of our own.

August 21, 2021

Earlier this month – as I told our employees during a virtual, all-staff gathering last Friday –Aunt Martha’s was proud to join with the 1,370+ Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) across the country to recognize National Health Center Week. August is also when our primary federal funder, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), typically releases the latest quality, cost and impact data for every community health center in the country. The recent release of information for calendar year 2020, a preliminary analysis reveals, gives a new layer of depth to the already rich story of Aunt Martha’s work during the most difficult of years.

The information HRSA makes available draws on a core set of information which all FQHCs are required to report, including data on patient characteristics, services provided, clinical processes and health outcomes, patients’ use of services, staffing, costs, and revenues. With each year’s release, we gain a greater understanding of Aunt Martha’s position in the community health center space. 20 years ago, we were a health care start up, if not an upstart as well. Today the data shows Aunt Martha’s is a leader.

A Leader in Access

2020 data shows sustained access to care at Aunt Martha's health centers throughout 2020

Sustained access to in-person, virtual care

Aunt Martha’s is a leader in ACCESS, growing our reach by investing in new communities and reinvesting in those we’ve long been privileged to serve. In 2020, over 12,000 patients visited one of our health centers for the first time. With all but one exception – Aunt Martha’s – no health center in Illinois with a reach comparable to ours (>55,000 patients) achieved more than 2% growth in 2020.

Ramping up telehealth services

Enabled by our rapid transition to a telehealth model, Aunt Martha’s health center staff pushed through the pandemic to keep our patients connected to their medical home and achieve 20% year-over-year growth.

A National Quality Leader

2020 data shows sustained high quality care at Aunt Martha's clinics

Sustained quality a testament to employee commitment

Aunt Martha’s is also a leader in QUALITY. Dr. Charles Barron, our Chief Medical Officer, and his team have worked incredibly hard to turn consistent improvement into sustained excellence. We have now another year’s evidence of the impact of their work as reflected in HRSA’s Health Center Adjusted Quartile Rankings, which illustrate Aunt Martha’s standing compared to other health centers after controlling for certain differences (e.g., patient insurance status, community demographics) that can influence performance outcomes.

In 2019, Aunt Martha’s average quartile quality score made us #13 overall among all of Illinois’ 45 FQHCs, and #5 among those which reported on the same clinical quality measures. Despite the pandemic, and despite a simultaneous period of rapid transition and growth, our health center staff rose to the occasion and delivered exceptional care. We are today, by comparison, ranked #7 for quality among all of the state’s FQHCs and #2 among our closest peer organizations.

Focused on Value

And Aunt Martha’s is a leader in VALUE. This begins with the medical home, the relationship between our patients and their care teams, and with Aunt Martha’s integrated model of care. It is a model designed to maximize the impact of every member of the care team and drive down the cost of care. Over the period of the last 6 years, our focus on integration, quality and efficiency has helped us drive down our cost per patient by 15%.That’s a stark contrast to trends at both the state and national levels, where FQHCs have reported cost increases of 40% and 26%, respectively.

Looking more closely at the value of community health care

To more fully capture the impact of that effort, our analysis included the creation of a composite Value Score to represent, overall, a health center’s quality and cost. This metric distills the essence of value-based care to a single figure. It accounts for the breadth of the scope of a health center’s services, as well as the complexities of the people and communities it serves; and, when complete, the calculations place Aunt Martha’s at or near the top of any list of value creators in Illinois, if not nationally. That is a space we are proud to occupy.

Access. Quality. Value. This is our work. This is our story. Thank you for sharing it.

In an internal survey conducted earlier this year, Aunt Martha’s sought to gauge our employee’s feelings and perspectives on the organization’s work between March 2020 and March 2021. We wanted to know where the agency had met their expectations, where had exceeded them, and where we had fallen short. Their overwhelmingly positive response revealed a culture of engagement, one in which employees feel both valued and protected.

These findings show that we are on the right path, but we are eager to do better.

KEY FINDINGS

Employee Survey on Aunt Martha’s Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

95%
of Aunt Martha’s employees were satisfied or more than satisfied with the agency’s pandemic response.

93%
of Aunt Martha’s employees were satisfied or more than satisfied with the agency’s pandemic response.

93%
of Aunt Martha’s employees felt the agency made their well-being a priority during the pandemic.

93%
of Aunt Martha’s employees felt the agency took steps throughout the pandemic to positively impact their work-life balance.

Streaming You a Red Hot Winter

Rod Sickler’s Red Hot Winter 2021 will be live on Saturday, April 10 – on-air and livestreaming on wcia.com. The virtual event will use use clips of the performances from the past two years from some of the best musical acts around, like The Royal Hounds, Feuding Hillbillies, and what we call “Guitarmageddon,” in which some of the best guitar players anywhere show their stuff.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness, which operates two community health centers as well as the Center for Children’s Services in Danville, IL. Last year, Aunt Martha’s served more than 3,500 children and adults from communities across the Central Illinois region.

WCIA Coverage

Governor JB Pritzker and his staff visited Aunt Martha’s health center in Chicago Heights on Friday, February 12 to promote the State’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution campaign.

A press conference followed his visit.

Speakers include:
– Raul Garza, Aunt Martha’s President and CEO
– Governor Pritzker, and
– IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.

Olympia Fields, IL: Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness, one of Illinois’ largest Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), announced today its effort to expand access to COVID-19 testing to low-income populations and underserved communities across Illinois. Testing will be provided at no cost.

Aunt Martha’s was among the first FQHCs asked to participate in the state’s initial push to expand testing, and has to date completed over 13,000 COVID-19 tests in Cook, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Will and Winnebago counties.

“The data continues to show that COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on certain segments of the population, particularly communities of color,” said Dr. Charles Barron, Aunt Martha’s Chief Medical Officer.

Mobile unit removes access barriers

“The mobile health unit is a vehicle – literally and figuratively – that breaks down the barriers that too often keep people from accessing care and services in the communities where they are needed most,” said Barron.

Aunt Martha’s mobile health initiative was created to not only increase access to COVID-19 testing, but also to offer health education and prevention, and connect communities and people with mobility difficulty access to health care options.

For information about upcoming events, or to schedule Aunt Martha’s mobile unit for an event in your community, send an email to mobileunit@auntmarthas.org.

About Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness

Aunt Martha’s serve over 105,000 children and adults each year with more than 35 sites, including 23 community health centers spread across nine counties. The agency’s integrated health home model offers value-based, coordinated services, delivering whole person wellness through the integration of primary and behavioral health care and linkages to additional support services that address social determinants of health. Aunt Martha’s has been continuously accredited by The Joint Commission since 1997.

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Olympia Fields, IL: Officials at Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness learned Tuesday that the organization is among the latest recipients of funding from the Live Healthy Chicago collaborative, which in May announced $5 million donation from The Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation to accelerate efforts to assist communities disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The $50,000 grant will offset a portion of the cost of the negative air pressure system installed in April at Aunt Martha’s Children’s Quarantine Center (CQC), the state’s only facility designed to care specifically for foster children whose living situation is disrupted by the COVID-19.

“We are grateful to have the support of the team at Live Healthy Chicago and appreciate their understanding of the connection between the disproportionate representation of children of color in the DCFS system in Cook County and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among African American and Latino communities,” said Raul Garza, Aunt Martha’s President and CEO.

Leveraging Aunt Martha’s healthcare and child welfare expertise

The CQC leverages Aunt Martha’s status as the only organization in Illinois to be both a licensed child welfare provider and Federally Qualified Health Center. It provides a home-like setting where DCFS youth who are exposed to or test positive for COVID-19 can be cared for and supervised around the clock until they can safely return to their prior placement.

The CQC represents Aunt Martha’s response to calls from DCFS for agencies with the capacity to safely care for youth in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. The facility, which since 2011 had served as a supportive and transitional living program for homeless young adults, was redesigned to accommodate and isolate the children placed there.

Hospital-grade protection in a home-like environment

That work included the installation of a hospital-grade negative pressure ventilation system to control the spread of airborne pathogens. The use of negative pressure ensures infectious germs do not spread through the HVAC system from youth rooms to the rest of the facility.

“There are communities willing to turn their backs on, if not outright discriminate against these them; but it’s in Aunt Martha’s DNA to stand up, to make the necessary investments, to innovate and, when necessary, to fight for these kids,” said Garza.

“Our expertise is in blending – integrating – the best practices of child welfare with the best practices of community health care. That’s the work we do at the CQC, and we’re proud to call Live Healthy Chicago our partner.”

About Aunt Martha’s

Aunt Martha’s serves over 105,000 children and adults each year with more than 35 sites, including 23 community health centers spread across nine counties. The agency’s integrated health home model offers value-based, coordinated services, delivering whole person wellness through the integration of primary and behavioral health care and linkages to additional support services that address social determinants of health. Aunt Martha’s has been continuously accredited by The Joint Commission since 1997.

About Live Healthy Chicago

Live Healthy Chicago is a community-based collaborative comprised of Forty Acres Fresh Market, The MAAFA Redemption Project, My Block My Hood My City, Rush University Medical Center, and West Side United. Its mission is to address the immediate wellness of seniors and high-risk populations in target Chicago communities experiencing the highest COVID-19 disparities and food insecurities. Its members are committed to dismantling the systemic racial and health inequities prevalent in target communities by implementing, funding and sustaining immediate, long term and collective tactics.

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Media Contact

Rick Meza
Meza Law
(708) 321-4693

Olympia Fields, IL: Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness announced today that the UIC John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Clinic has joined the organization’s continued effort to operate the state’s first and only children’s quarantine center for Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) youth in care affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UIC John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Clinic will serve as co-counsel in a federal lawsuit filed by Aunt Martha’s on May 12 asserting that the Village of Midlothian has engaged in discriminatory actions in violation of the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Emergency order prevents shuttering of quarantine center for DCFS kids

On May 27, the US District Court granted the organization’s request for an Emergency Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) prohibiting the Village from shutting down the Children’s Quarantine Center (CQC). Earlier this week it was extended for 60 days.

“Aunt Martha’s has always stood up for the most vulnerable members of the communities we serve, especially DCFS youth in care, most of whom are African American and Latino,” said Raul Garza, the agency’s President and CEO. “We believe there are important civil rights issues involved in this case, and we’re proud to have the Clinic’s team on our side in this effort.”

The Legal Team

As co-counsel, the Fair Housing Legal Clinic will offer its extensive fair housing related background and expertise in eliminating discriminatory practices and will help represent Aunt Martha’s in all aspects of this litigation.

Ricardo Meza of Meza Law will continue to serve as lead counsel. The Fair Housing Legal Clinic joins Roger Derstine of Roger B. Derstine, Chartered, Homero Tristan of Tristan & Cervantes, and Sohil Shah of Posinelli, PC as co-counsel.

About Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness, Inc.

Aunt Martha’s serves over 105,000 children and adults each year. It has over 35 sites, including 23 community health centers spread across nine counties. The agency’s integrated health home model offers value-based, coordinated services that deliver whole person wellness through the integration of primary and behavioral health care, as well as links support services that address social determinants of health. Aunt Martha’s has been accredited by the Joint Commission since 1997.

About the UIC John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center and Clinic

The primary goals of UIC John Marshall’s Fair Housing Legal Support Center & Clinic are:

Educate the public about fair housing law, and
Provide legal assistance to those private or public organizations that seek to eliminate discriminatory housing practices.

The clinic opened in 1993. Since then it has helped thousands Chicago area clients who were denied housing because of discrimination. Funding for the Clinic is provided in part by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Media Contact

Rick Meza
Meza Law
(708) 321-4693