Ascension hospitals share strengths of new smaller system with Schaumburg business community
Though Schaumburg has no hospital within its borders, leaders of the three Ascension hospitals directly serving the community spoke to the Schaumburg Business Association Tuesday about the strengths of a smaller health care system.
The three hospitals in Elk Grove Village and Hoffman Estates joined Ascension St. Joseph in Chicago, broke off from a larger 12-hospital group March 1.
“It allows the three of us to focus on all of you here,” said Dan Doherty, president and CEO of Ascension Alexian Brothers in Elk Grove. “As we get smaller, our goal is to be the leading provider of care for this community.”
He was joined at his breakfast presentation by Vanessa Hiland, chief operating officer of Ascension St. Alexius in Hoffman Estates, and Clayton Ciha, president and CEO of Ascension Illinois Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates.
Doherty added that keeping each facility and its service to the area top-notch is not a new goal. In 2024 alone, $80 million of free care was provided to the community.
“If you walk into our ER, we are going to take care of you,” he said.
While he and Hiland had much to say about the dedication of their campuses to a holistic approach to physical health, Ciha spoke of the unique resources at the psychiatric and addictions facility with inpatient and outpatient services.
“We don’t want to be the best kept secret in the suburbs,” he added.
In his 25 years there, Ciha said he’s learned people seem to discover the Behavioral Health Hospital when they need it. He compared it to the ghostly baseball players in the movie “Field of Dreams,” who can only be seen when their life-affirming lessons are required.
Schaumburg compares favorably to state and national averages on several areas of mental and behavioral health, but Ciha sees an opportunity for improvement in the rates of adolescent stress, anxiety and depression.
He said his hospital aims to serve the community through outreach as well as its brick-and-mortar resources. He’s seen the positive results that kind of direct interaction can have.
After a school presentation some years ago, a girl in the audience surrendered the goodbye letter she’d already written to her parents and actively sought help on the very day she’d intended to end her life, Ciha said.
The three hospitals have a combined 852 beds of their own near Schaumburg. Alexian Brothers touts 397, while there are 314 at St. Alexius as well as 141 at the psychiatric and addictions facility.