Aviation View - Oct 2023

98 AVIATION VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 SSM Health Illinois is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system serving the comprehensive health needs of communities across southern Illinois through a robust and fully integrated health care system. The organization’s 1,000 team members and more than 100 providers are committed to providing exceptional health care services everyone they serve. With care delivery sites in Benton, Centralia, Mt. Vernon, Nashville, and Salem, SSM Health Illinois includes 2 hospitals, more than 43 virtual care services, comprehensive home care and hospice services, and an intensive outpatient adult behavioral health program. SSM Health of Illinois is affiliated with SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. SSM Health Illinois offers cardiology, gastroenterology, cancer care, infectious disease, nephrology, podiatry, pulmonology, rheumatology, urology, vascular surgery, weight management and bariatric surgery, and orthopedic spine surgery among many others. US News and World Report have named SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital a “Best Hospital” for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital a “Best Hospital” for the treatment of congestive heart failure. Both ministries have received top honors from the Joint Commission and many other accreditations and awards during their long history of health care. For more information, visit: ssmhealth.com/Illinois MT. VERNON OUTLAND AI RPORT $40,200,000 annually, the airport’s 1,100- acre facility, encompassing 2,555,469 square feet of asphalt and concrete, has earned four Illinois Airport of the Year awards and is a vital resource in the region. Mount Vernon Outland Airport’s Commitment to Safety and Future Growth Airport Director Chris Collins shares, “We are an airport that’s blessed with a lot of infrastructure. It came to be that way because the airport had a commercial service carrier up until 1999 when our Essential Air Service grant subsidy was pulled from us.” The proximity to St. Louis and Evansville, along with easy access to major interstates provides convenient options for commercial air travel, limiting the likelihood of having another commercial carrier at MVN, but as an aviation enthusiast, Collins says he is following the development of new technologies which could be a game changer. “We still maintain our Part 139 air carrier certificate here, for the hopes of someday a carrier reemerging,” he maintains. “I’m watching that technology develop, seeing companies like Cape Air put deposits on nine- Along with recruitment to the Innovative Park, the airport is busy with upgrades to its facilities, including changing taxiways and the crosswind runway to LED lighting and updating the lighting on the large runway.