Following a lengthy transition period, Michelle Conger is embracing her new role as CEO of the OSF HealthCare system.
“I’ve been helping with the strategy for probably the last 15 years, so I don’t anticipate a huge pivot from where we’ve been,” said Conger. “But my vision is for OSF to continue to grow and expand the high acuity care that we’re able to provide.
“It’s for us to be able to continue to navigate patients so that no matter where you come into the OSF HealthCare system—a small, rural community hospital or a large hospital like in Bloomington or at Saint Francis— that we really guarantee access to the full capabilities of our entire organization.”
Conger, who joined OSF in 1994, moved into the network’s top leadership position following Bob Sehring’s retirement early this month. She had been serving as OSF President since December 2024, a position now held by Sister M. Mikela Meidl.
“During that time, I was able to transition some of my current role; I was serving as the chief strategy officer during that time, had responsibilities for marketing, communications, innovation planning,” said Conger. “I was able to fill that role and really do a lot of planning for what it meant to step into the CEO role. I also took accountability for some of the clinical elements of the organization.”
Conger believes many of the challenges facing the healthcare industry in recent years have resulted from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of that happens to be around just the changes in reimbursement models, and the ability to continuously attract talent, particularly in areas where there are shortages, for instance, [obstetrics] care, urology, things like that,” she said.
Conger said OSF has been responsive and adapted to the changing needs of patients, particularly after Affordable Care Act subsidies were allowed to expire.
“Moving forward, I think we’ve been fairly creative in terms of how we’re able to continue to provide care,” she said. “Some of our investments in digital health, our investments in mobile health, have really enabled us to continue to provide those services. Depending on how things happen in the future, we’re always trying to reinvent those care models to continue to assure access.”
Addressing shortages
Conger said OSF supports legislation that would allow nurses to work across state lines. The proposal to join about 40 other states in the Nurse Licensure Compact has stalled in Springfield, and the Illinois Nurses Association argues it would lead to more nurses opting for short-term contract work.
“This actually would help us, because of the long time it takes to get nurses licensed in Illinois. So we’re really hopeful that we see progress on this in the future,” she said, adding that OSF has seen a great improvement in its staffing levels.
“We’ve got a lot of pipeline that we’ve developed through our community partnerships with Illinois Central College, partnerships with Bradley, partnerships with ISU [Illinois State University],” she said. “All of that has really helped us fill a lot of those positions.
“We also have a lot of partnerships with Illinois Central College for some other roles that we need beyond nursing. That has really been exciting for us to be able to see people in terms of the tech positions that we have.”
Conger admits one area of focus remains making sure people have access to health care as costs for treatment and insurance continue to escalate.
“Particularly if you look at the cost of drugs, if you look at the cost of supplies, some instability in the supply chain—all of those things have certainly posed a challenge,” she said. “We have a lot of organizational work going on recognizing that you continuously have to be able to manage that to be sustainable in the long term.”
Conger said expanding services and continuing growth remains a priority for the OSF system that now includes 17 hospitals.
“We are definitely, for both Peoria and Bloomington, in an expansion mode with regard to access to the types of services we’re providing,” she said.
“In Peoria specifically, we’re working on what we’re considering our ‘institute,’ that’s the highest level of care that you’re able to provide, something like a heart transplant or certain types of care for pediatric patients.
“At the same time, we also are expanding care in Bloomington. We expanded our ICU, expanded our beds that are available at [Saint Joseph Medical Center] this last year. We’re continuing to build those capabilities, being able to provide higher levels of care in Bloomington as well.”
