Homewood-Flossmoor Resident Graduates Leadership Development

Carlos Quezada-Gomez is one of seven members of this year’s Leadership Development Program at Cook County Health & Hospitals System (CCHHS). Quezada-Gomez of Homewood-Flossmoor began the LDP in September 2017. The LDP is a signature initiative that serves to continue building the culture at CCHHS, and this is the 9th cohort of CCHHS employees to receive this high-level, intensive training. Quezada-Gomez has worked for CCHHS for nearly ten years. As the Mental Health Director within Cermak Health Services at Cook County Jail, he makes a significant impact on his team and the Cermak patients every day.

Cermak provides health services, including & importantly the mental health treatment to detainees held at Cook County Jail. The LDP concludes with a capstone project, and Quezada-Gomez decided to use his to measure satisfaction with the Mental Health Services provided at Cermak. He is implementing patient satisfaction surveys to begin to collect feedback on the services offered. CCHHS prides itself on our patient experience, and Quezada-Gomez wanted to make sure that extended to his department as well. Very few correctional facilities have similar data collection projects, so he is emerging as a leader in the field.

CCHHS runs two Leadership Development Program sessions each year, with the purpose of developing leaders from within the organization. Participants have weekly workshops during which they have lessons in essential topics such as patient experience, positive relationship building, quality & safety, managing performance expectations, and leadership during difficult situations. The LDP works on the belief that an excellent patient experience is dependent on the strong teamwork of their healthcare providers. In addition to learning new skills, the program incorporates a lot of discussion around implementing those skills within CCHHS.

Karen Williams, long-time facilitator of the LDP and System Manager for Learning & Development in Human Resources, notes that Cohort IX truly knows how to shine within the program, and that they already displayed critical leadership skills in decision making and discussion within the context of their small group. In the past, the graduation ceremony speaker has been chosen by secret ballot, but Cohort IX decided that the anonymity was unnecessary, and was able to discuss who should speak at the ceremony. “It may seem like a small decision compared to the huge ones that members of Cohort IX will face in the future,” Williams says, “but it’s great to see the group practicing their new leadership skills already. “