Our host city of Chicago is the stage for many movies, musicals, plays and tv shows. Blues Brothers, Home Alone and the timeless Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are all Second City classics. Today, one critically acclaimed tv offering set in Chicago is FX’s, The Bear. A touching and funny story about a young chef and his “family” as they struggle to create fabulous food and a livable life. In a season two scene, (spoiler alert) one character uncharacteristically contemplates the meaning of a sign which hangs under a kitchen clock in a Michelin Star restaurant - “EVERY SECOND COUNTS.” The double meaning, one about running an efficient restaurant and another about leading a full life, is finally clear and powerful to the clever but tormented Richie.
Each day 10 Americans die from an asthma exacerbation. Asthma costs the US public over $80 billion dollars each year and in Illinois alone over 300,000 school days are missed due to asthma.
When children leave class to take an ambulance to the emergency department it both costs them the medical risk and an average of over $1700. Since nearly 50% of American children with asthma are on Medicaid, much of that bill belongs to that state…and its taxpayers.
The RESCUE program puts all needed resources into the hands of nurses and staff so kids can be rescued and stay in school. Saving children and dollars by allowing them to get back to class over 76% of the time. In fact, Illinois is poised to save as much as the program costs this year ($2.4MM) and the intervention is yet to even reach all public schools.
Season three of The Bear dropped on June 26th. As he seeks meaning, I hope Richie continues to learn what School nurses know all too well. When you are responsible for a life - EVERY SECOND COUNTS.