Our Daily Show Interview! Zach Yoder- New President of OSF St Anthonys
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ALTON - OSF Healthcare St. Anthony’s Health Center has a new president.
Zach Yoder, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, is in his second week as St. Anthony’s president, but he’s a longtime Riverbend resident eager to serve the Alton area. Yoder said he’s looking forward to taking care of the community alongside OSF’s mission partners.
“For us it’s just about living the mission and doing what we’re here to do every day,” he said. “We’re looking to continue to be here to take care of the community. Hospitals are an economic pillar in the community. We not only have a lot of folks that work in our organization that live here, but we also take care of everyone in the community as well. For us, that’s not something that we take lightly.
A graduate of Jerseyville High School, Yoder started his medical career as a pre-med student, until his junior year of college when he “had a little bit of a crisis” and switched his major to nursing. He realized he preferred the bedside care that nursing entails.
After a few years as a student nurse tech at Barnes Jewish Hospital, he decided leadership was his calling. He took a job at HSHS, then worked at SIHF Healthcare and Touchette Regional Hospital in Cahokia Heights before coming to Alton. He has experience working with academic hospitals, rural hospitals, and underprivileged communities through his previous work.
Yoder believes his career has prepared him to lead St. Anthony’s alongside OSF’s employees, called “mission partners.” As a former nurse himself, he is familiar with the frontline care that nurses and physicians provide, and he also understands the leadership needs that a hospital has.
“Having done those positions and been in some of those roles, it really helps a lot understanding what it is to be a patient care tech on the ground level taking care of patients, versus what it is to be the manager of a nursing unit all the way up to the president role,” he explained. “It really does provide a lot of opportunities to meet people where they’re at, and then also the nursing aspect of leading with empathy.”
As a leader, Yoder is focused on relationship-building. He argues that any workplace can provide pay incentives, but only a special workplace will foster the right environment to hire and retain employees. With a current 30–35% turnover rate in the nursing field since the COVID-19 pandemic, Yoder noted that providing this positive work environment is especially important.
“I am another cog in the wheel to make this place function. It is not my show. It’s not your show. This is a hospital that takes care of community,” he said. “Our patients are our number one priority, but our staff is also our community and they’re also our patients. So me as a leader, I have to really focus on taking great care of my team so my team can take care of patients.”
As part of that care, Yoder is focused on “smart growth” and implementing new technology, like ambient AI and predictive analytics, at the hospital. But his main focus is the people.
He recently walked around the hospital and chatted with patients in the waiting rooms. Most of the people he approached explained that they consistently choose St. Anthony’s because they feel like they are “more than a number” at the hospital. They enjoy the "community feel” that small community hospitals like St. Anthony’s provide.
This feeling, combined with quality care and resources, make St. Anthony’s stand out, Yoder said. As he embarks on this next chapter of his career, he looks forward to working closely with St. Anthony’s mission partners and the community. He hopes to continue expanding the hospital and building relationships, all with the goal of providing a great hospital for the Riverbend community.
“The opportunity to serve the Alton community, for me, is very exciting,” he added. “The people are very welcoming, and I’m very excited to be back in the Alton community.”
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