PEORIA, Ill. — Over 400 OSF employees will be working in downtown Peoria in the new OSF OnCall building, a first-of-its-kind digital hub.
The first employees will begin working at the building on SW Adams St. Monday, with more to come in the following weeks.
The hub will be the OSF HealthCare center for handling patients virtually for all 14 OSF hospitals throughout Illinois and Michigan.
It’s something that was in the works before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the timing of it opening during the pandemic couldn’t be better.
The center, according to Senior Vice President of OSF Digital Health Jennifer Junis, can take care of patients virtually through every step of the health-care process.
“Taking the components that we’re putting in this building, to ease our patients’ journey, is not being done anywhere else in the nation,” Junis. “To bring all [steps of the process] together is something that we’re leading in.”
The building has many different departments, just as a regular hospital would.
One floor is set up for patients to call if they’re feeling sick, while another has an eICU, which provides digital monitoring of patients in the intensive-care unit.
Essentially, the OnCall center brings all aspects of a regular hospital together in a digital way. Other call centers throughout the country may bring together certain departments of a hospital, but never in the totality seen at OSF OnCall.
“The vision for this, several years ago, was perfect timing to have all the pieces of the puzzle together [prior to COVID-19],” said Junis. “So much of not being able to see patients in person has really made our digital advance rapidly.”
For Peoria, it means more business to the downtown area.
“Having an additional 400 people working in our downtown everyday is something that most communities would die for,” said Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis. “We’re really excited that we have these quality jobs coming to our downtown.
“We’re very confident that it will attract other employers that want to be in the area.”
Health professionals will occupy the building 24/7/365 in order to always be able to provide services to those in need of it.
OSF OnCall is located at 330 SW Adams St, where the old Caterpillar Building LD was located.
Interview with Junis:
Interview with Ardis:
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