The Cook County Health and Hospitals System’s board of directors is seeking to shift $4.9 million to Provident Hospital in an effort to shore up the nursing staff there. 

Provident began cutting beds last month because it had exhausted its available funding for temporary nurses.

The board today voted to request approval from the Cook County Board of Commissioners to pay for more temporary nurses at Provident with money that had been budgeted to fill open positions across the system.

“We have the money; it’s in our budget,” Chairman Warren Batts said. “We want to keep the beds open. We want good people taking care of our patients.”

Because of a nursing shortage, Provident has filled many vacancies with temporary nurses, which are more expensive than in-house employees.

Provident COO Sidney Thomas said last month the hospital is short 25 nurses. Nurses are less likely to apply for jobs at Provident, he said, because of media attention on the possibility of the hospital closing due to county budget cuts.

The $4.9 million would allow Provident to go back to its normal 119-bed capacity, says Thomas.

In other business, system CEO William Foley announced the hiring of a chief operations officer, a chief financial officer and a chief clinical officer at the board’s annual meeting this morning.

Anthony J. Tedeschi, a doctor with an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellog School of Management, takes the reins as interim COO, replacing David Small, who was previously the health system’s interim CEO. Tedeschi, a founding partner of the Sibery Group, an Oak Brook-based health care consultancy, starts on Monday.

Michael D. Ayres, a former director of Huron Consulting Group with 35 years of experience, was named as the health system’s CFO. Most recently, he was CFO for Grady Health System in Atlanta. He will begin Sept. 1.

Roz Lennon is the health system’s new chief clinical officer. A nurse by training, Lennon has practiced in Chicagoland hospitals for much of her career. She was chief nursing officer at Rush University Medical Center, and has practiced at North Shore Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital. She begins July 27.

Last week, Foley named directors of public relations, human resources and performance improvement.

As required by law, the board also held its annual leadership elections. Board members voted to retain Batts and Jorge Ramirez as chairman and vice chair, respectively. It also maintained the current committee leadership.

Board members expressed confusion over a recent Crain’s Chicago Business report detailing a partnership between Provident Hospital and the University of Chicago Medical Center.

The partnership reportedly involved UCMC arranging up to $20 million to equip Provident with specialty services, urgent care and a maternity unit, which would be staffed by doctors from UCMC and Provident. to upgrade Provident, with the hospital matching the funds. However, Foley said it is not a done deal, but rather part of broad discussions about potential partnerships.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s premature for us to commit to anything before there’s a strategic plan,” he said. The board is hashing out its long-term plan, seeking input from Cook County residents in a series of public meetings beginning later this month at county-wide locations.

The board also approved a $30 million, seven-year leasing contract with Bank of America that will supply imaging equipment, pharmacy robots and IT equipment.

It also will allow recently built rooms at Oak Forest Hospital to open. They previously lacked the necessary imaging equipment. “We are expecting a 10 percent increase (in patients) once these rooms open,” says Oak Forest COO Sylvia Edwards. “We’ll be able to move (patients) out of the hallways where they’re being treated.”

Foley said he would authorize funds to assist a South Side health clinic survive the rest of the year. Project Brotherhood, an organization that serves mostly middle-aged black men in Woodlawn, has seen its state and grant funding diminish in recent years, and was on the brink of closing.

The health system will provide an as yet-to-be-determined amount of money to the organization, and will attempt to include a $140,000 line item to fund the clinic in its 2010 budget.