A Voice at the Table: HSHS St. John’s Hospital leader joins healthcare panel

What is the state of healthcare in Springfield and surrounding communities? Attendees at a Citizens Club of Springfield event gained insights into the operations and community outreach efforts of HSHS St. John’s Hospital and others.

Brian Brennan, President and CEO of HSHS St. John’s Hospital and HSHS Central Illinois Market, was joined by Mandy Eaton, President and CEO of Memorial Health; Rebecca Birenbaum, CEO of Springfield Clinic; and Dr. Chris McDowell, Executive Associate Dean at SIU Medicine for “The Health of Healthcare in Central Illinois” on Friday, April 24. Joyce Nardulli, president of the Citizens Club of Springfield, served as the moderator for the event held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in downtown Springfield.

Brennan returned to his Midwestern roots when he relocated from Austin, Texas, to Illinois nearly a year ago and stressed to the crowd the high-quality healthcare found in Springfield.

“We have literal world-class healthcare,” Brennan said. “The care that you can get here is unparalleled.”

St. John’s Children’s Hospital a regional leader for care
He gave HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital as an example, which offers the only Level III neonatal intensive care unit within a 60-mile radius, including 37 counties. The Children’s Hospital also recently expanded its Pediatric Day Hospital so more kids can get chemotherapy in a cheerful space featuring a playroom. Additionally, the labor and delivery unit routinely cares for moms experiencing high-risk pregnancies, monitoring them 24/7 so they can safely deliver their babies.

“Folks don’t have to drive an hour-and-a-half, two hours to St. Louis,” Brennan said. “They can drive 15 minutes, half-an-hour to get to Springfield and get the same amount of care, the same level of care.”

Collaboration key among Springfield healthcare leaders
Brennan applauded the collaboration among his Springfield peers, saying they are working on aligning patients’ electronic medical records to ease communication as patients seek care across all four organizations.

St. John’s Hospital, Memorial Health and SIU Medicine already collaborate on outreach efforts, funding community health workers in disadvantaged neighborhoods and St. John’s emergency room to provide local health and social service resources for quicker care closer to home – before the patient needs the emergency room.

“The goal is always there to try to get patients to the right level of care,” he said.

HSHS Mission remains steady despite reimbursement issues
HSHS and Memorial Health are both nonprofit health systems, meaning their profit margins reach no more than 1% to 2%. Yet both systems deal with increasing operational costs while government programs and insurance reimbursements fall short of the actual cost of providing care, Brennan said.

“It’s what keeps us awake probably every night trying to figure out how to solve for that equation,” he said.

Yet St. John’s Hospital and the entire HSHS system remain firm to fulfilling the Mission of the founding Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. In FY25, HSHS provided over $128 million in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs, along with $294 million of unreimbursed care for Medicare patients, as reported in our Community Health Impact Report.

“We are going to be here for the next 150 years taking care of patients,” Brennan said.