WOOD RIVER - The OSF HealthCare community came together to celebrate the blessing of a new primary care facility in Wood River.
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On Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, Wood River officials and OSF leaders welcomed community members to a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony of the new facility, located at 1853 Vaughn Road in Wood River. Attendees could tour the clinic and learn more about the new primary care options in town.
“There’s a need for it within our community,” said Wood River Mayor Tom Stalcup. “We’re looking forward to having all the services here, and I’m grateful that they are here.”
During the dedication ceremony on Aug. 12, Melissa Allen with OSF HealthCare welcomed the community to the facility. Sister M. Beata Ziegler, Vice President of Operations and Special Projects, led the opening prayer.
Vice President of OSF Medical Group Dawna Menke expressed her excitement to join the Wood River community. She noted that the clinic will be in good hands as the team begins seeing patients.
“It’s very exciting for us to be part of this community in Wood River,” she said. “We’ve been working on this for several years to get here, and this is very exciting for us. Really, that partnership with the community is very important to us. And we have great physicians here and providers. We’ve got Dr. [Isha] McConkey and Lisa Reid who have really stepped forward.”
Chief Executive Officer of the Western Region AJ Querciagrossa echoed Menke. He pointed out that OSF HealthCare is celebrating a milestone year in 2027, and this clinic is their newest opportunity to serve the community.
“We cannot be more thankful to the city and the community for their warm welcome,” Querciagrossa said. “This is important to OSF HealthCare. The OSF HealthCare Ministry next year will celebrate 150 years of caring. Our Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George, they’ve been serving this community for more than 100 years. So we look to them and their inspiration on this expansion.”
Before this, Wood River had no primary care services in town. Sharon Tippett, the previous director of the Alton market, brought the idea of building a primary care facility in Wood River to OSF directors.
Tippett and her colleagues hope the facility welcomes people from surrounding rural communities. They emphasized the importance of healthcare access.
“There’s really no primary care offerings in the Wood River area,” she said. “Our location here, right by the Walmart — everybody goes to Walmart at some point in time, so we thought it would be perfect. We just wanted to be accessible to the patients.”
Dr. Isha McConkey, the clinic’s physician, said she has already seen patients that she has been trying to get into the Alton clinic for years. These patients told her it was possible for them to receive primary care now because the clinic is “next door.”
McConkey and the rest of the OSF team hope the Wood River clinic meets the community’s needs, and they are eager to build up the facility in the future.
“We’re just doing our best to serve all of the needs of this community, and we’ll be expanding in the next few years as well to offer even more resources,” she said.
Father Don Wolford from Holy Angels Parish in Wood River provided the blessing.
As OSF HealthCare’s new Wood River primary care clinic begins accepting patients, you can call 618-467-1580 to make an appointment. Click here for more information about the clinic.
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