How UChicago Medicine aims to close gaps in need

In her work at University of Chicago Medicine, Catina Latham leads efforts to address the needs of some of Chicago’s most vulnerable residents.

Latham was named UChicago’s senior vice president for community health transformation and the system’s chief equity officer. She leads UChicago Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative, the public health arm for the system.

UChicago Medicine invested $715 million in programs to support the community, including more than $600 million on the city’s South Side, which sees marked disparities in health outcomes compared to more affluent areas of the city.

Latham oversees efforts to ensure patients can get access to better care. But she also leads programs to help patients and families recover from violence, efforts to improve food insecurity, and helping people find work.

In an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Latham discussed the efforts to meet community needs and tackle the social problems that can affect the health of the city’s residents.

“Your life expectancy could vary very greatly based on your living location alone,” Latham says. “And what we do with our programming is we do our part to help address those disparities.”

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

‘Beyond the medical care’

UChicago’s Urban Health Initiative works to ensure that patients aren’t being blocked from the care they need. The program will help patients get connected to follow-up appointments or appointments with specialists and address transportation needs if that’s a barrier.

“What we do is we go beyond the medical care approach,” Latham says. “We ask about their food sources, or if they need to be connected to a nutritionist. We also ask about their employment status. We do an in-depth social screener, and then our goal is to connect patients to those services.”

In addition, the program will help patients in their own homes if necessary, Latham says.

“For our asthma patients, we go to their homes to show them how to use an inhaler, for example, if that's needed. Or if maybe they're things around the home that are triggering their asthma, we point those out and give them alternatives. So it's taking just that extra step to provide that extra wraparound support to our patients, to help fill in the gaps, addressing their needs where they are to then lift up their health status to where it needs to be,” she says.

UChicago Medicine has also operated a violence recovery program for years. Latham says community concerns led to the creation of that program.

“We have violence recovery specialists, we have psychologists, psychiatrists, whatever the needs are,” she says.

While some may need immediate help, others receive ongoing support, including assistance for family members and children.

“Trauma just affects everyone …. beyond just the patient,” she says.

The health system is developing a new job training center to prepare individuals for jobs in the laboratory, pharmacy technicians, community health workers and other roles.

UChicago has partnered with City Colleges of Chicago on the training center on the South Side. Latham says it can offer new opportunities, including careers at UChicago.

The value of tenacity

For health systems looking to launch initiatives aimed at tackling community needs, Latham advises to start small at first.

“There have been initiatives that we've started just with the resources within,” Latham says. “It didn't have to be grand scale. We just started it and went from there. I think many times, knowing the need, it can be a bit daunting, because you're thinking, ‘Oh, will I make any difference?’ Just start small and see where it goes.”

When asked about sustaining success in programs aimed at tackling social factors that affect health, Latham says, “Keeping at it.”

She pointed to UChicago Medicine’s patient advocate program, where staff in the emergency department help patients get connected to care if they don’t have a primary care doctor.

“We're still working and building and evolving,” Latham says.

“This is ongoing,” she says. “So that's why I said, I think it's just something you have to keep doing and realize that you're going to have some short term wins, and that long-term return comes from that long-term investment. And that's what we're hoping to do here.”

Latham says she’s grateful for her role as the system’s chief equity officer. When she meets with others in the system aiming to help meet community needs, she finds inspiration and ideas for other projects she’d like to launch, she says with laughter.

“The biggest reward has been being able to work with so many different partners to do it, and meeting some amazing people, finding out about some amazing work and impact that they're making on a grand scale, at a smaller level, with their resources,” she says. “That's sort of the added bonus that I didn't think about going into it.”