Renslow Sherer, M.D., Director of Coordinated HIV Services

The CORE opened in October, 1998 and resulted from a private-public partnership between the Cook County Bureau of Health Services and Rush University. The CORE Center was formerly known as the Cook County HIV Primary Care Center, which was founded in 1983 as the Sable/Sherer Clinic of Cook County Hospital. The heart of this care model is the multi-disciplinary health services and programs that evolved in response to the expressed needs of people living with HIV disease and their providers. The CORE Center is the largest provider of HIV care in the Midwest and one of the largest providers of services to women and children with HIV in the nation.

Highlights:

• The CORE Center, a new, state-of-the-art HIV ambulatory care facility with multiple, specialized services including, adult and family clinics with on-site child care and integrated support services, an adolescent HIV program, on site chemical dependency treatment, an STD screening clinic, prevention services, extensive clinical trials and research (ACTG and CPCRA), and an infusion/diagnostic center with endoscopy, bronchoscopy, dental services, and other specialty services.
  
  
• The Women and Children HIV Program (WCHIVP) was developed in 1988 as what may be the first comprehensive, integrated care program for women in the nation. Services offered on site include medical, obstetrical, gynecologic, and pediatric care, innovative, family-sensitive support services, targeted HIV prevention efforts for women at risk, reproductive counseling, child developmental psychology, family counseling and interventions with the Department of Child and Family Services, and participation in research efforts such as the WIHS, WITS, and the Pediatric ACTU. Among the accomplishments of this group is a 75% penetration of HAART among women at the CORE Center (March 1999), with a 60% decline in the mortality rate (1996-1998).
  
  
• In October 1998, the CORE Center for prevention, care, and research of infectious disease opened after 5 years of planning. This unique public-private partnership was designed to be a national model facility for state-of-the-art care for people living with HIV.
  
  
• Affiliated services including a 28-bed inpatient unit at Cook County Hospital; a 15-bed sub-acute care unit at the Oak Forest Hospital; and prison health HIV outreach, prevention, and care services at the Cook County Jail.
  
  
• Approximately 1,500 people with HIV receive care in area community health centers of the Title II Cook County HIV Consortium with physicians who are linked by real-time consultation to the Infectious Disease staff at the CORE Center.
  
  
• Advanced and basic training programs with Rush Medical College and the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center (MATEC). HIV services at the CORE Center and Cook County Hospital are closely linked to the activities of the MATEC. MATEC is the principal provider of training to the Title II Cook County Consortium led by Cook County.