PEORIA, Ill. – The OSF Healthcare Cancer Institute in Peoria is nearly ready to start accepting its first patients.
One of the final steps before the facility opens was to bless the building, a tradition done before any new building or wing of a hospital opens. The blessing occurred at a ceremony on Tuesday by Peoria Diocese Bishop Louis Tylka, attended by OSF officials, sisters, and members of the community. The ceremony also featured scripture readings and the hospital’s choir.
Tylka says blessing the building is a “great honor.” He says the facility takes a lot of care with concern and care for how patients are treated.
Tylka also feels a connection to the institute, with his mother and sister passing away from cancer.
“This is a place where possibility because of research done here, because of the care that’s given here, we may find an answer to that particular cancer that my sister and my mother suffered from,” Tylka said. “That’s the potential that’s here, and that’s what’s exciting.”
OSF Healthcare CEO Bob Sehring says after the blessing of the building, the facility is now in a “wonderful transition” phase.
“Now really beginning to treat patients, to treat their families, to bring them in here to provide that healing that we hope to provide to so many folks,” Sehring said.
Sehring says the final preparations feel like getting ready for an opening night on Broadway. He says those last steps include preparing for patient flow and registering them.
OSF Healthcare says they expect to treat up to 3,700 patients each year, with an economic impact to the Peoria-area of $1 billion over the next decade.
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