Patients and families have the potential to be one of the most powerful forces driving improvement in our healthcare system. Quality Quest for Health of Illinois is working to make sure people have information to help them get excellent healthcare. The healthcare they need and deserve. We're on a quest to improve healthcare and you can help.

The Healthy Lifestyles School Project originated in the summer of 2009 with the goal of promoting healthy lifestyle choices among students and families at Garfield Primary School, Trewyn Middle School and Manual High School in Peoria.  The Full Service Community Schools (FSCS) Advisory Council proposed the project to Quest and a team was assembled.  Team members included a wide variety of local stakeholders:  school principals and staff, local government officials, youth, health and community focused non-profits, parents, nutritionists, medical experts, and local businesses.

A substantial part of reducing waste in healthcare can be accomplished through widespread institution of electronic health records (EHRs). Too often, tests and procedures are repeated on patients because the providers do not have records of what care the patient has already had. This kind of unnecessary care makes up more than $500 billion every year that, with EHRs, could be cut out of healthcare spending. EHRs are also useful in tracking both long- and short-term care schedules, keeping providers and patients aware of when procedures like mammograms, colonoscopies, and diabetes-related tests need to be done.

An Interview with Dr. Michael Jongerius

I'm originally from St. Louis and I went to college and medical school at the University of Missouri in Columbia. After that, I did my primary care residency in York, PA. I then started practicing medicine in Peoria to fulfill a commitment with the Health Service Corps. When I completed that, I intended to go back to St. Louis to practice, but there was an opening that appealed to me for a physician in a Methodist rural practice in Princeville, that included a large migrant health population. Following some time there, I had the opportunity to help start a practice on an expanding edge of Peoria. Several years down the road, I decided to take an administrative position, but before long, I missed the clinical work. I wanted to return to practicing medicine, but do it differently than before, in my own way. That leads me to where I am today, in my Junction Medical practice which I opened in January 2009.