A $250,000 donation from Graham Health System to the Spoon River College Foundation will support the School of Nursing and Allied Health Learning Lab at the new SRC campus in Macomb.
“We’ve had a great partnership with Spoon forever, and we’ve got a need and will have an ongoing need for nurses and lab techs and on the radiology side, and so it’s just a natural fit,” said Bob Senneff, CEO of Graham Health System. “We really have a symbiotic relationship between education and healthcare, and as we continue to grow and the college continues to grow, we’ll grow together.”
Senneff said the Graham system also has its own School of Nursing, which will soon be a College of Nursing that will award four-year degrees. It’s located on the third and fourth floors of Graham Hospital in Canton.
Senneff said Graham also donated $500,000 to SRC a couple years ago to fund scholarships for students in healthcare fields.
SRC President Curt Oldfield said the latest donation will pay for equipment, furnishings, and other program needs.
He said nursing is the college’s largest career and technical education program.
“It’s really important for us to have the workforce that the medical providers need in the area. Rural healthcare is so vital to our communities,” Oldfield said.
He said the nursing program is full at both the Macomb and Canton campuses, with 24 first year students and 24 second year enrolled on each campus. For the Macomb campus, that’s twice as many students as SRC could enroll prior to the move to its newly opened campus on East Jackson Street.
Monday was the first day of classes on the new Macomb campus.
Oldfield said preliminary data shows almost 1,300 students enrolled at SRC across its four campuses this fall, and credit hour enrollment is up almost 7%.
Oldfield said 200 to 300 students are attending classes in Macomb.
“Our goal is to get back to that 600-student range, and this facility is built to handle even more than that. We’re going to set incremental goals and keep working to achieve those,” Oldfield said.
SRC serves students in Fulton, Knox, Mason, McDonough, and Schuyler counties.
In addition to its hospital in Canton, Graham Health System operates around a dozen clinics in Fulton, Knox, Mason, McDonough, and Peoria counties. Senneff said they just purchased a second clinic in Macomb. The building is being remodeled and should open late this year.
He said the health system employs nearly 1,000 people.
“We’re in the 950 range now, and we would hire another 50 staff if we could find them,” Senneff said.
He said that’s the largest number of employees in Graham’s history, which dates back to 1909.
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department, please consider making a financial contribution.
