GALESBURG — Liza DeKezel, president of OSF St. Mary Medical Center, said she has spent the past several years watching signs of Cottage Hospital’s looming closure.

Now facing an influx of patients, DeKezel said OSF St. Mary is prepared to become the city’s sole health care provider. 

“Yes absolutely, we’ve certainly seen an influx of patients which would be expected with a local hospital closure,” DeKezel said. “And really that's on all fronts. That's the hospital side, our clinics, outpatient testing, prompt care — in all aspects.”

DeKezel said the increase in patients hasn’t happened overnight, but gradually as service lines began to decrease in Cottage Hospital. Gaining 70 new employees last year alone, OSF St. Mary has hired new physicians, specialists and nurses, as well as more lab staff, food service, facilities and clinic workers. 

The hospital’s president said that the recent increase constitutes a 15 to 20% increase of staff at OSF St. Mary and that there hasn’t been “an area that’s gone untouched.”

"When Cottage closed their OB (obstetrics) department, we were already in the midst of an OB renovation project,” DeKezel said. “We quickly pivoted and did an expansion on that renovation just to make sure that we were capable of meeting the volume and needs of the community. And so we've been able to do that very successfully. 

DeKezel said that OSF St. Mary will continue its recruiting and hiring efforts, just as it will continue with facility upgrades and expansions to its physical footprint to allow for enough “elbow room” to accommodate all of the area’s health care needs. 

Besides the OB project, OSF St. Mary has already renovated its second floor surgery department. The hospital will also gain three new intensive care unit beds by this summer, bumping the total number of ICU beds in the 84 hospital bed licensed facility to nine.

DeKezel said that OSF St. Mary's current capacity remains around 75 to 80% full on any given day. During COVID surges, she said the hospital did have days where it reached 100% capacity. 

But she would like locals to know that while the hospital’s emergency room and prompt-care facilities are “very, very busy” right now, OSF St. Mary is opening an urgent-care clinic in the fall. The urgent clinic will be located in the Galesburg area and will help provide walk-in services without flooding the other departments.

“We want the community to understand we're increasing those access points for the urgent care, same-day type walk in visits so that we can help patients access care at the right point of care versus accessing the ER for those types of services that can be served in the prompt care or urgent care," DeKezel said.

DeKezel said the decision to increase the number of OSF St. Mary’s ICU beds to nine was made carefully with data to support that the hospital would be able to handle local and regional needs.

If OSF St. Mary finds the demands exceed the facility’s abilities, DeKezel said the hospital will continue to expand accordingly.

“OSF is very vested here in Galesburg and has been for many, many years and plans to be here long term,” DeKezel said. “So we will continue to grow and expand and continue to invest in this community.”