Newsroom OSF HealthCare

This story from WGLT highlights a new partnership with Chestnut Health Systems and OSF HealthCare to use a $5 million dollar grant to help Medicaid patients use digital tools and increased monitoring from OSF to improve chronic health conditions and have access to increased care.

Chicago-based national health care industry publication Becker's Hospital Review sought out the expertise of top marketing and communications executives, including Susan Milford, senior vice president for marketing & communications at OSF HealthCare to talk about words not to use in a marketing campaign. Milford provides an incisive summary of the health system's overall approach to putting people first in any type of communication.

OSF HealthCare has broken ground on on a $237 million Cancer Institute that will utilize proton beam therapy. The 180,000-square-foot cancer center and accompanying 10-story parking deck will be located at the intersection of Armstrong and Glen Oak at the east edge of OSF's campus.

Dr. Michele Beekman, a pediatric hospitalist with OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria says she's concerned about how the upcoming fall and winter might play out with the unusual recent surge in pediatric respiratory illnesses.

A very deep hole right outside OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center is the beginning of OSF’s new Cancer Institute, a $237 million project scheduled to open in 2023.

The groundbreaking for the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria was called “a milestone day” and “the beginning of a new era” in the treatment of the disease in central Illinois, but one speaker during ceremonies Aug. 17 began by sharing a “little secret” about the $237 million project. “I think they’ve already started to move some dirt around here,” said Bob Sehring, chief executive officer of OSF HealthCare, drawing laughter. The Tuesday afternoon ceremonies took place next to a cavernous, 40-foot-deep crater at the center’s construction site on the campus of OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center.

This feature highlights how life-saving trips on an OSF Life Flight helicopter inspired a career and a job shadowing experience that brought one OSF nurse full circle.

This story in Becker's Healthcare, a Chicago-based publication, highlights the addition to the OSF Ministry, a hospital in Princeton, Illinois. The hospital has been renamed in honor of Saint Clare, a follower of Saint Francis of Assissi who established an order in the Francisican tradition and who was the first woman to write a set of monastic guidelines.

This story highlights a new tradition, the planting of a tree to honor cancer survivors. The cherry tree is on the campus of OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony's Health Center and it's Moeller Cancer Center in Alton, Illinois.

This story honors the life of legendary pediatric cardiac surgeon Dr. Dale Geiss who pioneered the congenital cardiovascular surgery program at OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois. This story highlights among Dr. Geiss' accomplishments -- the fact that he was the first surgeon in Peoria to perform an open-heart surgery for newborns that involves constructing a new aorta.

Two state agencies are honoring a Peoria doctor for a lifetime of medical care, particularly for his care of children.Dr. Girish Deshpande works in pediatric critical care for Children's Hospital of Illinois at Peoria's OSF St. Francis Medical Center. Dr. Deshpande is a recipient of the Ron W. Lee, M.D. Excellence in Pediatric Care for lifetime achievement.

COVID-19 has limited the ability of medical students to do in-person observation and rounds at hospitals and other clinical sites, so they're using simulators to help provide "real life" scenarios. This story features students from OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford during their recent training using exercises developed at OSF's Jump Simulation and Education Center in Peoria.

Senior Vice President of OSF digital health Jennifer Junis, who oversees OSF OnCall testified before lawmakers in Springfield in favor of HB 3498, a bill that would require insurance companies to fairly reimburse health care providers that offer telehealth services. The bill seeks to prohibit restrictions on telehealth by location, meaning patients can be treated at their home and can see a provider of their choosing but they are also not obligated to use the service.

The Community Health Foundation of Warren and Henderson Counties have pledged $2.75 million to add 10,000 square feet of space to the emergency department at OSF HealthCare Holy Family Medical Center in Monmouth. The money will transform the department to include 10 treatment rooms, a dedicated triage area, private family consultation and behavioral health rooms, plus an ambulance bay with private entrance and a decontamination room, which is crucial for the care necessary for those living in a rural community.

This story explains a partnership between OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will bring a COVID-19 test using saliva to schools, businesses and other organizations in the community. The goal of the initiative --"To make the tests available, very convenient, and very reliable, and at the very minimum costs,” according to OSF Innovation leader Dr. John Vozenilek.

Garrett Vygantas, MD, managing director, Venture Group, OSF Innovation, OSF HealthCare was among four key leaders weighing in on a panel discussion hosted by Health Leaders Magazine which looked at the impact and use of artificial intelligence by health systems. Dr. Vygantas said, "AI allows us to harness the insights (from data) that would otherwise be nearly impossible or very limited in scale on a human level."

This story for WCBU in Peoria and WGLT in Normal features Jennifer Junis, senior vice president of OSF OnCall Digital Health discussing how telehealth expanded rapidly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic but the new options were added to an already robust and growing Digital Health program that includes remote monitoring and e-ICU to connect rural hospitals with expert care.

Illinois Country Living Magazine takes a look at barriers to mental health in rural areas. Luke Raymond, director of behavior health for OSF HealthCare was interviewed for the story.

This story features OSF Innovation leader Dr. Sarah de Ramirez discussing OSF Healthcare’s health equity action lab which is employing a data-driven strategy to address breast cancer disparity outcomes among its Illinois patients, 65% of whom live in rural areas.

This story highlights how Virtual Reality Lessons Created at OSF HealthCare's Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center in Peoria are helping prepare medical students for real life scenarios at a time when their ability to do bedside rounds and sit in on surgical procedures is not an option because of COVID-19.

This story highlights the latest focus of nearly $1 million dollars in grants to research ways to leverage technology to improve access to care, especially for underserved communities and ways to provide screenings and care earlier to prevent disease or to catch it early enough for successful treatment.

OSF HealthCare CEO Bob Sehring and his wife, Barb, and Jay and Betty Vonachen and their son and daughter-in-law, Matt and Lesley Vonachen, have each committed to giving $1-million gifts in support of the fundraising campaign for a new cancer center on its campus in Peoria.

This story outlines how OSF HealthCare will be vacating offices all over Peoria to move Mission Partners (employees) into the new hub on SW Adams for OSF OnCall, an electronically-based care programs for OSF HealthCare facilities throughout Illinois and Michigan.

In this radio interview with host Vanessa Wetterling of WMOI-WRAM Radio in Monmouth, Dr. Linda Auer , an opthamologist who has been practicing in Galesburg for more than two decades announced she'll begin offering cataract surgery at Holy Family Medical Center in Monmouth to meet a growing demand from the community's older residents.