Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - communityhealth is requesting support to renovate the space IT uses for clinic administration, education, and community…

Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - communityhealth is requesting support to renovate the space IT uses for clinic administration, education, and community events. Over the past year, we have worked to expand our community health worker program. We have only hired two employees to this team so far, but we hope to add several more. Unfortunately, in the current configuration of our office space, there is no desk space for these employees. IT is also impossible to hold more than one community event, health education class, volunteer training, or other meetings at the same time due to limited space. This has challenged the clinic's ability to grow its services and the number of people IT serves. By providing care to more uninsured individuals (as this program will do), IT creates an economic benefit to the local health care system (including the cook county health and hospital system). When uninsured individuals have health issues that worsen or arise, many without a medical home seek care in local emergency rooms for primary care. According to a recent report by premier, in the united states, approximately 30% of emergency room visits with chronic conditions are potentially unnecessary. By providing preventative care to uninsured individuals, IT is estimated that communityhealth saves the local health care system $9 million a year.