Excellent Care Close to Home

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Advocate Condell Medical Center thrives at the epicenter of high achievement

Advocate Condell Medical Center is a far cry from the one-building hospital it was when it first opened its doors in 1927. Today, it is the largest healthcare provider and only Level 1 Trauma Center in Lake County, the third-largest county in Illinois. Offering a full spectrum of medical services and connected to a robust network of immediate care centers, the hospital maintains its community focus and standards of excellence, having received many national accolades over the years.

In 2022, Advocate Condell was named one of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals and recognized as one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals by Newsweek. In addition to clinical excellence, its commitment to sustainability was highlighted with the 2022 Environmental Excellent Award and 2023 Emerald Award by Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in healthcare. As Lake County continues to grow and medicine evolves, Advocate Condell remains on the forefront of care, modernizing and expanding its patient areas with renovated wings designed with patients and their families in mind. The hospital recently opened a new, expanded intensive care unit, with state-of-the-art technology to care for the most critically ill patients, as well as negative-pressure rooms specially designed to isolate and treat infectious diseases like Covid-19.

Matt Primack

“We’re always looking ahead to what’s next,” explained Matt Primack, President of Advocate Condell Medical Center. “Our community is growing quickly, and it’s important that we keep the pace so that our neighbors continue to have access to the care they need close to home. We were founded as a community hospital and, at our core, that’s still who we are today.”

Advocate Condell takes a unique “whole person health” approach, offering wraparound services that extend well beyond a person’s initial visit to the hospital. This is evident in the hospital’s Trauma Recovery Center, the only one in Lake County, which provides free support services to victims of violence. It also has partnerships with local organizations to connect patients with primary care and social support, offer mobile screenings and deliver healthy food to area families.

“Health and wellness are determined by so much more than medicine,” Primack continued. “We want to address the root causes of illness, like food insecurity or a lack of education, while also improving access to critical primary care and screening services that help people identify and treat illness early. It’s a more holistic approach to healthcare that will drive better outcomes for our patients.”

Healthcare access remains a priority for the hospital, which offers telehealth and virtual visits to patients. The goal is to meet them where they are anytime and anywhere, and Advocate Health’s innovative LiveWell app connects them to personalized wellness information.

“Healthcare access is a priority for us and it’s what our physicians and communities are both looking for,” Primack said. “We are, on a routine basis, changing, improving, modifying, and advancing types of models of care to our patients. The patient is at the center of everything we do, no matter how we construct our innovative models of delivery.”

Like hospitals across the world, Advocate Condell was impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Primack is focused on addressing staffing shortages and meeting demands for high-quality services at lower costs.

One solution is to focus on community investment, Primack said. Advocate Condell partners with local high schools, colleges, and community groups to help spark an interest in the field and train the next generation of healthcare workers. Bilingual education around critical issues like substance abuse and mental health are also offered at key community nexuses so residents know where to go if they need care.

Internally, teammates have access to a diverse catalogue of professional and personal development opportunities to help equip them with the tools they need to succeed. Primack is proud of Advocate Condell’s leadership development opportunities and underscored the urgency of acquiring and retaining talent at every level. The hospital recently earned its second Magnet® designation, indicating it’s a great place for nurses to grow professionally and where healthcare teams work collaboratively in the best interest of their patients. The culture of Condell is built around supporting not only their patients, but supporting everyone involved in the organization, he said.

“Our job is not only to create direction, financial stability, and strength of the organization, but also to create an environment where everybody in it can be successful,” he stressed. “If we can successfully build an environment where everybody is successful, our patients will have the best experience possible.”

Advocate Condell also benefits from being part of Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the nation.

“Backed by a leading integrated health system, we’re able to leverage a host of incredibly innovative and strategic initiatives around safety and quality, for example,” Primack said. “That’s something we’re very excited about.”

It also provides Primack and other hospital leaders with an opportunity to learn from each another and innovate faster, even in a particularly challenging environment for the industry.

In the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, Primack has the following advice for leaders:

“Leaders need to be thoughtful. They need to be patient and compassionate. And they need to be flexible to meet the many challenges facing hospitals today, all while ensuring that patients have continued access to high-quality medical care.”