SIHF wants to build a new hospital to replace Touchette in Cahokia Heights
SIHF Healthcare wants to build a new $231 million hospital to replace Touchette Regional Hospital about four miles away in Cahokia Heights.
Touchette President Brad Goacher said the move would improve hospital access and fill a gap in the region’s mental health system.
The next step for SIHF is seeking approval from the Illinois Health Facilities Review Board, which exists to keep health care costs in check and avoid unnecessary duplication of health facilities. Goacher said he expects hospital leaders to submit an application with more details about the proposed hospital in 30 to 60 days.
If approved, construction is estimated to begin in early 2027, with a projected completion date of 2030.
Plans for a new hospital have been in the works for several years, according to Goacher. It was part of the organization’s 2021 application for an Illinois Healthcare Transformation grant. Of the $229 million that the state awarded SIHF for community health projects, Goacher said $193 million will go toward a new hospital’s construction.
“The excitement around this has been happening for a while,” he said.
SIHF purchased two pieces of farmland in 2022 and 2023 as possible locations for the new hospital: 41 acres on Bellevue Drive and 35 acres on Sandy Ridge Road.
The $1.3 million property at 1928 Sandy Ridge Road, behind the Schnucks grocery store, was selected for the project.
How a new hospital would be different
The old Touchette building is more than 65 years old and in need of upgrades, according to Goacher. He said the location also has access issues.
At times, roads in the community can be blocked by water from persistent flooding or by trains from three railroad tracks that surround the hospital at 5900 Bond Ave.
Goacher said the new location near Interstate 255 and Camp Jackson Road would make it easier for patients to travel to the hospital.
As part of the planned new hospital, Touchette is also seeking to increase the number of beds available for in-patient mental health treatment.
The organization received a separate $15 million state Capital Development Board grant toward the new hospital to build a wing specifically for adolescent mental health. It’s a service that does not currently exist anywhere else in the region since Gateway Regional Medical Center stopped providing adolescent and child psychiatric hospital beds in August 2020.
“There are no (adolescent) in-patient beds in Illinois south of Springfield today,” Goacher said.
Of the new psychiatric beds planned for the Cahokia Heights hospital, 24 will be for adolescents 12 to 17 years old, 24 will be for seniors and 48 will be for adults. This would nearly triple the number of psychiatric beds Touchette offers today, increasing to 96 from 38.
With a total of $208 million secured from state grants, SIHF expects to pay $23 million toward the new hospital’s construction.
As for the old Touchette building, hospital leaders suggested in their 2021 grant application that it could be repurposed for supportive housing for the community and reentry programming for people coming out of incarceration. Goacher said no funding has been established yet, but officials are still exploring those options.
Touchette’s outpatient behavioral health services center that opened in 2016 is planned to remain at the Bond Avenue site, according to Goacher. He said it could provide help to people in the possible reentry programs or future supportive housing, as well as the hospital’s existing housing developments, like Vivian’s Village.
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
