The Suburban Cook County Tuberculosis Sanitarium District - History

The Suburban Cook County Tuberculosis Sanitarium District

Text Box: History of The Suburban Cook County TB Sanitarium District (SCCTSD) By 1949, tuberculosis killed nearly 1,000 Americans every week, and was the leading cause of death from infectious disease among young adults 15 to 34 years of age. The SCCTSD was formed in the late 1940s and has grown to become an international leader in TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Text Box: 1947 The Suburban Cook County Tuberculosis Sanitarium District is formed by a public referendum. 1949 The SCCTSD is established, and begins operation in a converted bank building on Madison Street in Forest Park. 1950 The average length of stay in the hospital for a patient undergoing treatment for TB is 229 days. The SCCTSD establishes close working relationships with a wide range of organizations in its efforts to eliminate TB, such as: the Chicago Medical Society Tuberculosis Control Committee, suburban branches of the Chicago Medical Society, hospital administrators and medical staff at area hospitals, various Departments of Public Health, medical and welfare social agencies and the Tuberculosis Institute of Chicago and Cook County.

Text Box: 1994 Dean E. Schraufnagel, M.D., professor of the Section of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presents “Tuberculosis in Suburban Cook County for the Next Five Years” to SCCTSD’s Board of Directors. The SCCTSD begins working in conjunction with residency programs at: Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital, Resurrection Healthcare, St. Anthony Hospital and McNeal Health Network. In 1996 and 1997, outreach staff visit 242 industry sites in suburban Cook County to provide education regarding the importance of on-site TB screening. The SCCTSD divests itself of its inpatient hospital facility and refocuses efforts on a more cost-effective outpatient tuberculosis program. Class II infected patients no longer require monthly physician consultation and can now be treated by nurses. The SCCTSD implements a research program in collaboration with Loyola Hospital and the Edward Hines, Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital. The SCCTSD focuses on implementing on-site skin testing programs at smaller industrial companies. Outreach staff also begins targeting various schools, residential and community centers with high foreign-born populations in Cicero, Palatine and Maywood, for on-site skin testing programs.

Text Box: 1953 The SCCTSD is one of the first agencies to use Ionized chemoprophylaxis as part of an effective preventive program after its discovery in 1951. The average daily census of hospitalized patients under the care of the SCCTSD is 212.The SCCTSD breaks ground on a 40-acre site at 55th Street and County Line Road in Hinsdale, Illinois, for a new sanitarium. From an initial base of operations in Forest Park, the District soon expands to include clinics, a hospital and case finding programs. The SCCTSD’s new TB hospital opens in Hinsdale and admits its first patient.

Text Box: 2002 The SCCTSD introduces a new efficient mobile clinic for use in identification, diagnosis and treatment of TB. 2004 A multidisciplinary team of national TB specialists conducts an in-depth review of the SCCTSD TB control program. 2005 The District sends the Mobile Clinic to New Orleans to assist with the recovery from the devastating hurricane season. 2006 2006 Public Act 094-1050 is enacted on July 24th which dissolves the SCCTSD one year later. All assets and liabilities of the District will be transferred to the Cook County Board. The Cook County Department of Public Health will assume all responsibility for the prevention, care, treatment and control of tuberculosis within the suburban Cook County area.

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