More than half of the doctors on the medical staff at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital say they’re thinking about leaving the institution within the next year. That’s according to a preliminary survey of 178 doctors.
The survey simply puts concrete numbers on what everybody already knew at Stroger, that severe cuts and layoffs over the last year have seriously harmed staff morale. Seventy percent of the doctors who are thinking of leaving say it’s because recent cuts have hurt the hospital’s core mission of caring for poor people. County Commissioner Jerry Butler chairs the health committee. He says the layoffs have been tough but hopefully positive in the long run.
Butler: “And now we’ve got to try and put it back together and make it work. It’s going to be uncomfortable and certainly there are going to be lots of people who are going to think about leaving. Doesn’t mean they’re going to leave. It’s part of the conversation.”
Butler says he hopes the survey spurs his colleagues on the county board to come up with more money to support the county hospitals.