Israel Rocha, CEO of Cook County Health, is leaving the health system Dec. 1 “to pursue a new professional opportunity,” a CCH spokesperson announced Friday.
“Serving as Cook County Health’s CEO has truly been a privilege,” Rocha said in a statement. “I am humbled and grateful to have been a small part of CCH’s rich legacy. I have every confidence that the incredible team that comprises CCH will continue to carry on the powerful work of the health system and lead it into a bright future.”
An interim director of CCH will be announced “in short order,” spokeswoman Alexandra Normington said.
Cook County Health not only operates a public health department, two flagship hospitals — Stroger and Provident — and clinics across the city and suburbs, but also CountyCare, CCH’s Medicaid health plan, and medical services for detainees at the Cook County Jail.
Its proposed 2024 budget is $4.37 billion.
Rocha jumped from NYC Health & Hospitals, the country’s biggest public health system, to CCH in October of 2020 as Cook County Health was bracing for another wave of COVID-19 cases.
Rocha was also previously CEO of Elmhurst Hospital and Queens Hospital in New York and Doctors Hospital in Edinburg, Texas. He was a departure from physician leaders of the past at CCH: Rocha was a public administrator who also worked for Texas congressman Rubén Hinojosa in Washington, D.C.
In a statement, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle thanked Rocha “for his steadfast leadership” during “a once in a 100-year pandemic swept through every community in our nation.”
“Under Israel’s leadership, the health system saved lives by opening the mass vaccination sites, administering more than a million COVID-19 shots, and increasing and enhancing services” at CCH hospitals and clinics while addressing “social determinants of health. … I extend my gratitude to Israel for his exceptional leadership and extend my best wishes as he embarks on his next journey,” Preckwinkle said.
In the CCH statement, Lyndon Taylor, chair of the health system’s board, credited Rocha for his budget prowess and setting “a clear vision for advancing the health system and its essential mission. Under his leadership, CCH has managed its annual budgets with a positive variance, set a record pace for hiring … developed programs to improve quality outcomes, and more.”
Rocha’s appointment came after a nearly yearlong vacancy following the ouster of Dr. John Jay Shannon. After a five-year tenure, the CCH board opted not to renew Shannon’s contract after scrutiny over the rising costs of charity care and debt collection practices. Since Shannon’s exit, Preckwinkle and the Cook County Board have been given more authority over the health board, including approval of the next CEO.
Its mission since its founding has been to serve all patients regardless of their ability to pay. CCH continues to take on the bulk of the county’s charity care: All in, such care cost $175 million in 2021 and $142 million in 2022. The expansion of the state’s health benefits program for immigrant adults and seniors helped contribute to the falling expenses, Normington said.
But the charity care burden has been compounded as the county has agreed to take on the health costs for the influx of asylum-seekers to Chicago. Since September of 2022, the health system has spent nearly $30 million on new arrivals’ health needs, Normington told the Tribune in early October. Those costs are roughly $2 million a month.
Aside from his leadership during the pandemic, Rocha also weathered a 18-day strike in the summer of 2021 from SEIU Local 73 workers. The system has continued to struggle finding full-time clinical workers and has instead, at times, relied on expensive contract workers. The system’s next CEO will also have to tackle the future of Provident Hospital: Rocha’s early plans to revamp the South Side facility have been repeatedly put on hold.
Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor who chairs the board of finance at CCH, said Rocha “built a strong team and we are better off today than at any point in time that I’ve been on the board or working at the CFL. That’s the last 13 years.”
“I was inspired when we hired him that we were going to have someone who would take the largest public safety net system in our state, one of the largest systems in the country and put it on par with the large not for profits here in Chicago,” Reiter continued. “Delivery of health care services, delivery of public health protection and the delivery of health care coverage — getting all three of those things pointed in the right direction where they’re complimenting each other instead of fighting each other has been a challenge up until we got this guy in. … We have to find another leader who can be transformative and continue us on that path.”
“In the coming days, the CCH board of directors will develop a transition plan, appoint an interim CEO, and launch a national search to identify a permanent replacement,” Taylor said.