Background
For decades, the 900,000 residents of the South Side of Chicago have experienced health disparities ranging from materially higher disease incidence and comorbidities to significantly lower life expectancy. These health disparities reflect a history of racial inequities and underinvestment – both of which have contributed to a fragmented healthcare delivery landscape with limited resources. Today, over 50% of all South Side residents leave the South Side to receive their care. In an unprecedented initiative to address these challenges, which are only growing more acute, the care providers of Chicago’s South Side have formed a comprehensive coalition of FQHCs, safety net hospitals and health systems – driven by community input and dedicated to fundamentally advancing health care access and better health outcomes for Chicago’s South Side residents.

 The coalition – comprised of Advocate Trinity Hospital, Beloved Community Family Wellness Center, Chicago Family Health Center, Christian Community Health Center, Friend Health, Jackson Park Hospital, Near North Health, The New Roseland Community Hospital, Saint Bernard Hospital, Sinai Chicago – Holy Cross Hospital, South Shore Hospital, TCA Health, and University of Chicago Medicine – plans to establish a new, 501(c)(3) not for profit organization – the SSHCO as the vehicle by which it will facilitate – in partnership with the community – health care transformation on Chicago’s South Side.

 The SSHCO will do so by implementing a comprehensive Healthy Community Model focused on primary and specialty care access, preventive and chronic care management, care coordination and management, provider collaboration, community engagement, and a connected digital and technological infrastructure. The coalition expects that through this approach, Chicago has the potential to be a national model in community health transformation.

Introduction
During its first year, the South Side Healthy Committee Organization is looking to develop interventions that improve the following metrics:

1.       Access to Preventative Care

2.       Controlling High Blood Pressure

3.       Follow-up after hospitalization for Mental Illness

4.       Follow-up after ED for alcohol/substance abuse

5.       Focus on Maternal Health

To achieve improvements in these areas, the SSHCO will deploy a “Care Team Model” comprised of Clinical Providers, Social Work, and Care Navigators, who follow the patient no matter where they receive care within the 13 collaborative sites.

Improving access to health care is essential to improving these metrics however, they are not the only focus of our efforts. The SSHCO recognizes that it must treat the “social determinants of health” with as much intentionality as providing clinical care to benefit our patients.  

The specific social determinants of health that the SSHCO is focused on include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following:

·       Transportation needs

·       Employment / Financial Resource Strain​

·       Technology​

·       Education​

·       Healthy foods/Grocery store access​

·       Care navigation support​

·       Depression / Substance use / Alcohol​

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* 1. Please provide the name of your organization

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* 2. Please provide the address for your organization

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* 3. Does your organization reside on or currently serve, work with or treat residents on the South Side of Chicago?

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* 4. Please indicate partnership you are interested in pursuing with the SSHCO

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* 5. Please indicate which services your organization provides

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* 6. Please describe how your organization can participate in achieving any of the five-key metrics:

1.  Access to Preventative Care
2.  Controlling High Blood Pressure
3.  Follow-up after hospitalization for Mental Illness
4.  Follow-up after ED for alcohol/substance abuse
5.  Focus on Maternal Health

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* 7. Please describe your current capacity, and capacity to take on new patients, clients, or caseloads.

[Describe your current caseloads, volumes, service area, average time to appointment from referral, and etc. Indicate your capacity to take on new patients, clients, or cases.]

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* 8. Integrated Partnership: Please describe in detail your vision for an integrated partnership between your organization and the South Side Healthy Community Organization.

[Examples for consideration: Your organization’s care coordinator sits at an FQHC clinic site to screen and refer patients to your program. Your staff are on the same technology platform as the SSHCO care coordinators, communicating with our social work team and clinical providers about care our patients receive in the community. Your organization has a vision for “closed loop referrals” and better connections to referring providers, describe.]

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* 9. Integrated Partnership: Please indicate if the Partnership you described above would require additional resources to implement and provide a general description of those resources.

[Example: Would require 4 additional care coordinators to be placed at sites of care to screen and refer patients]

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* 10. Integrated Partnership: Please indicate if your organization has a new program idea that you would like the SSHCO to consider? Please summarize this new idea in one paragraph. Please include a general estimation of the resources (i.e. staff, budget, and etc.) that will be required.

Terms and Conditions
THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY.  This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future.

This request for information does not commit the SSHCO to contract for any supply or service whatsoever.  Responders are advised that the SSHCO will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense.  Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. 

Requirements of The Response
The SSHCO will review all responses that are returned, regardless of completion. Please consider filling the document out in its entirety to ensure that the SSHCO has adequate information about your organization and program(s).

Submitting Responses and Timeline

Thursday, January 20th 11am-12pm: Open Question and Answer session for all participants via zoom 
Tuesday, January 25th 4pm-5pm: Open Question and Answer session for all participants via zoom
Please register for the Q&A session that is convenient for you via Eventbrite. Registration link was sent in email from the South Side Healthy Community Organization. 

Due date for submitting responses: Please submit responses by 5pm on Friday, February 4th

Next Steps
The responses received through the RFI process will help inform the HCO of potential referral partners for consideration as the organization begins to receive, screen, and refer patients. It may also guide the HCO in how to structure a future Request for Proposals for Integrated Partnerships. Organizations that submit information as part of this Request for Information process will be notified of next steps.

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