Goal: Ensure the Appropriate Number of Well-trained Health Care Providers to Provide
Care to All Residents
R
osalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science has been leading The Health Professions Education
Consortium (HPEC), working to expand opportunities in medical and health sciences education and
careers by partnering with regional schools, businesses, non-profits, and government. The Lake County
Health Department, Workforce Board and Workforce Development have been active partners in HPEC,
continuing to improve the education and career readiness of students along healthcare career pathways. HPEC has
worked with North Chicago Community High School on the Healthcare Careers Pathway Academy, creating an
opportunity for students to explore healthcare related careers. Thirty juniors enrolled in August of 2014 and 30
sophomores enrolled in August of 2015.
Other partners in the consortium include: 1.) Education: Carthage College, Carroll University, College of Lake
County, DePaul University, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Northern Illinois
University, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, University Center and the University of
Wisconsin-Parkside. 2.) Industry leaders: AbbVie, Advocate Condell Medical Center, Assured Healthcare, Vista
Health System and Walgreens.
Building Emergency Response Capabilities
T
he Health Department’s Emergency Management program is charged with being the lead agency in
disasters involving infectious diseases as well as nuclear, environmental, chemical and biological acts of
terrorism. As such, seeking out volunteer site managers to oversee each mass medication distribution
point in the county is an ongoing effort toward
sustaining a plan to identify the emergency or disease, its
possible source and minimizing risk to county residents.
In 2015, the number of site managers increased from 90 to
168. While the number fell short of the goal of 180, the
challenge brought about a shift from only using Health
Department employees as site managers to expanding and
including Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
members. Of the 12 CERTs in Lake County, Emergency
Management has so far reached out to those in Highland Park,
Buffalo Grove, Libertyville, Fremont, Mundelein and Antioch.
87%
Site Managers
The recruitment expansion not only fills a need for numbers, but also raises awareness in communities about
emergency response and makes the training and response effort a community-wide response. Volunteers who
want to be site managers must complete two Federal Emergency Management Agency courses and take a training
with the Health Department. In return, each manager is trained on how to create an emergency kit for his or her
home and giv V