Brian Brennan has now been at the helm of HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield for a year, having been named HSHS Central Illinois market president and CEO, as well as president and CEO of St John’s, in May of last year. As market president, he oversees strategic and financial operations at HSHS hospitals in Decatur, Effingham, Litchfield and Shelbyville, as well as leading St. John’s.
Brennan, who has more than 20 years of healthcare executive leadership experience, joined HSHS from Baylor Scott and White Healthcare in Austin, Texas, where he served as chief operating officer of the Greater Austin Region. A Wisconsin native, Brennan holds a master’s of healthcare administration from the University of South Florida, Tampa, and a bachelor’s in nuclear medicine technology from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Wisconsin, first in Milwaukee, and then when I was 7, we moved to a little southeastern Wisconsin town called Palmyra. My first job was as a lifeguard. I loved being outside in the sun and teaching kids how to swim. That’s probably why when I graduated from college, the first thing I did was move to Florida because I was not a fan of the snow.
What first drew you to the profession?
I was always good in science and enjoyed chemistry, so I thought I was going to go into chemistry, but my freshman year in college I started wondering if I really wanted to be stuck in a lab my whole life because I’m a people person. Then one of my roommates told me about a lecture where they were giving away free pizza, and, being a starving college kid, I said, “Free pizza? Let’s go!” So I went and learned about this new technology called nuclear medicine. That launched me into healthcare, and I really fell in love with taking care of patients while also using my science and chemistry.
As far as the executive part of it, I really just worked my way up. I was good with people. I was just 21 years old when I was made a nuclear medicine manager. In healthcare that’s a pretty common way that folks move up; you’re a good leader, you’re good with people, you can motivate teams and make good decisions, so you get promoted from within.
How do you deal with so many responsibilities while still maintaining relationships with individual employees?
The more senior you get the more people you are responsible for, so that gets harder and harder. I have almost 5,000 colleagues and caregivers that I’m responsible for, and I utilize technology as much as I can because I obviously can’t get out and talk to 5,000 people every day.
I love being in the weeds, getting with the nurses and techs and housekeepers and folks that make this place run, but unfortunately, I can’t spend as much time as I would like doing that. So we create pathways so people can share information. I use the shotgun approach; I do communications, meetings and video conferencing. I’ve created a blog and a way where folks can communicate directly with me, and I can answer them. It’s really nice to utilize all those different technologies to stay as connected as possible.
How do you encourage innovation in a healthcare system, and do innovative ideas sometimes come from patients?
We have people from every generation and different viewpoints and ideas, and we try to get as many of those ideas from them as possible. Our CEO, Damond Boatwright, implemented a great program this year where he cultivated ideas from everybody within the system. I try to emulate that myself because I don’t have all of the answers, but I have a lot of people around me who have great ideas.
I think a lot of the innovation in healthcare comes from patients, but we’re very cautious about what technology we adopt and how quickly we adopt it because patients’ lives are at stake. But now a patient can live in Springfield and take a vacation anywhere, and they can walk into a hospital and within a few clicks that hospital can have all of that patient’s medical records at their fingertips. That creates safer, healthier care across the entire continuum.
What are the biggest opportunities and risks in healthcare today?
Staffing is a big problem in the healthcare industry, mostly direct caregivers like nurses and doctors. Every day it gets harder to be a doctor because you spend more of your time working on paperwork and regulations and less time with patients. COVID-19 did not help either because everybody worked at such a pace that many left the healthcare field earlier than they wanted. You combine that doctor and nurse shortage with folks like baby boomers living longer, and it’s creating an issue where the supply and demand is getting farther apart every day.
But there is an opportunity to leverage technology to help get ahead of that curve. Doctors now have access to millions of patients’ data, and that data can be aggregated through AI technology, so they can find diagnoses and treatment options for the exact same issues their own patients have. That knowledge frees up doctors to see more patients.
PHOTO COURTESY BRIAN BRENNAN
Will AI or tele-health ever be able to completely replace in-person human interaction in healthcare?
It’s not going to ever replace the interaction between a doctor and a patient or a nurse and a patient. What I think it will do is provide more resources to caregivers, schedulers, billing folks and administrators to access information more quickly and provide faster diagnoses and responses. I don’t think AI will ever replace the number of human beings that are currently working, but in the future where 200 people are needed for a certain job right now, maybe you might need only 180 to do the same thing. It’s really about keeping the core component of what we do, that doctor-patient relationship, and letting technology give us aid.
What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your work?
It gives me great satisfaction to be able to take some of my knowledge and ability and help another person in need. I now have thousands of patients a day that I can help because I am helping the leaders and caregivers who are helping the patients. When teams of people realize the impact they have on patient care, whether they are direct caregivers or not, and they light up with pride at the realization, it gives me great satisfaction.
What advice would you give to young people who are entering today’s career field?
A lot of information is at your fingertips today, but young people should not become complacent about that because you still have to work hard if you really want to succeed in this world. If you’re using ChatGPT to get all of your assignments done, you’re not learning how to learn. You need the ability to think critically and make good decisions.
You don’t have to be a nurse or doctor to get into healthcare, although there is an incredible need for those professionals right now. But if you’re a person who likes computers, sales or leading teams like I do, there is a path for you in healthcare, wherever your passions are.
What may people be surprised to learn about you?
I like to travel, play golf, and I’m a family guy. I love being a coach. I have a son who’s a very successful college baseball player, and I truly have enjoyed getting out of the office and using some of the skills I have by motivating and mentoring and being with young baseball players and teaching them how to play the game.
This article appears in June SBJ 2026.