Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) member Rush University System for Health’s president and CEO Omar Lateef, DO, shares how the health system partnered with West Side United (whose members include HAN members Rush University System for Health, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Ascension) and other key community organizations to build Fillmore Linen Service on the west side of Chicago. Rush had been sending its laundry out of state due to the lack of commercial laundries in downtown Chicago.
From the MedPage Today article quoting Dr. Omar Lateef, president and CEO of Rush University System for Health and Rush University Medical Center:
”So how did it work out? “We did this, and Rush is saving a million dollars a year” on laundry. We put together a beautiful state-of-the-art laundry facility. And to get a job in there, you have to live in the Zip code. . . . Think about that: 150 people now have a job in their neighborhood and a retirement plan for the first time. That’s going to improve health in the community.”
See also: The TRiiBE article on how West Side United is providing support for the Westgate project along with the Community Grocer Initiative (CGI), to increase access to healthy and sustainable food for all.
