Social Emergency Medicine
Since its founding in 1834, the mission of Cook County Hospital has been “To provide a Comprehensive Program of Quality Health Care with Respect and Dignity, to the residents of Cook County, regardless of their ability to pay.” As the only public safety net hospital of Chicago and the surrounding county, the Cook County Emergency Department sits at a very unique medical, socioeconomic, and cultural crossroads. Our program works to educate our trainees on the many social determinants that affect our patient population in an effort to improve patient care and resident cultural competency.
Cook County Hospital primarily serves Chicago’s west-side community, which has an average life expectancy 16 years lower than Chicago’s Loop neighborhood only 7 miles east, due in large part to many social determinants of health. Our hospital also serves a diverse, international population, which comes with a unique set of social determinants: Cook County Health is at the forefront of treating the influx of migrants and asylum seekers from South America, this year treating more than 6,500 migrants and asylum seekers as of May 2023.
Social EM at county
Our residents operate a Social EM Interest Group that, with attending support, facilitates journal clubs, volunteer opportunities with community engagement partners and street medicine groups, research and quality improvement projects, and lectures regarding social determinants of health.
Multiple faculty members with interests such as Global Health, Street Medicine, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Diversity and Inclusion, Women’s Health Access, Substance Use, Voter Registration, and Food Insecurity conduct projects and events with residents longitudinally throughout the curriculum. Recently, Cook County EM residents and faculty have recently participated in the VotER initiative, research into vaccine hesitancy, and initiatives to improve access to the COVID-19 vaccines for our most vulnerable emergency department patients.
