Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s economic value to the Springfield area and the rest of the state has been quantified at more than $1 billion annually.
That’s according to a recently published economic impact report on the SIU system that was put together by two SIU economists, Jebaraj Asirvatham and Scott Gilbert.
Illinois taxpayers support the Springfield-based medical school to the tune of $41.1 million in state general revenue funds each year, according to SIU spokesperson Catie Sheehan. That total is part of the $219.4 million in GRF money for the entire system, which also includes SIU’s campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville.
The report said the state’s investment in the medical school generated almost $36 million in tax revenues during the most recent fiscal year.
“SIU Medicine’s mission has always been to improve the health of the residents of central and southern Illinois,” Dr. Jerry Kruse, the medical school’s dean and provost, said in a news release. “It’s exciting to learn how much the people, jobs and services contribute to the region, and just how much we are adding to the prosperity of the Prairie State.”
The study, the first analysis of the total economic impact of the SIU system and the latest report on the medical school’s impact in 12 years, was released in November 2024 and will assist SIU in educating state lawmakers about the importance of ongoing state tax support for the university, system President Dan Mahony told Illinois Times.
With an annual economic impact of $4 billion per year, and economic support for more than 45,000 direct and indirect jobs, the SIU system “has a fairly significant impact in this part of the state,” Mahony said.
The medical school’s economic impact includes spending on university operations ($901.2 million), student off-campus spending ($17.3 million) and spending related to the income of its alumni ($104.8 million).
The school, with campuses in Springfield and Carbondale, has almost 2,600 full- and part-time employees. About 1,400 other jobs are created by the economic demand and spending created by the school and its students and employees, according to the SIU report.
Ed Curtis, president and chief executive officer of Memorial Health, said the medical school, founded in 1970, helped fuel an increase in the number of doctors in Sangamon County – from about 100 in 1970 to the current total of more than 1,000.
“The impact that this medical school has had on this community is profound,” he said.
Officials from Springfield Memorial Hospital and HSHS St. John’s Hospital said the medical specialists employed through SIU’s multispecialty physician practice, as well as the medical residents who help provide round-the-clock care to inpatients and those attracted to Springfield because of the medical school, have helped local hospitals offer advanced care for a host of diseases and conditions, including strokes and care for critically ill children.
Dee Dee Gellerman, 55, of rural Petersburg, said she and her husband, Doug, 59, are grateful for the catheter-guided procedures she received in her brain at Springfield Memorial in June 2024 to help her avoid severe complications from a ruptured aneurysm.
“I’m alive, and that’s great care,” said Dee Dee Gellerman, a retired Illinois Farm Bureau regional manager. “It makes you appreciate and enjoy every minute.”
The catheter-based treatments she received to stop one ruptured aneurysm and prevent another one were provided by Dr. Casey Muehle, a neurointerventionist from Springfield Clinic.
Muehle said he depends on SIU’s medical residents to help monitor the recovery of his patients, and he works with doctors at the clinic and SIU to make sure one of them is available at all times in Springfield to perform catheter-based, non-surgical procedures inside the brain to prevent disability and death.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or x.com/DeanOlsenIT.
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This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2025.
