Lifetime Achievement Citizen of the Year 2023: Frogge calls nursing 'an extraordinary privilege'

But nurses?

Simply put, said Maggie Frogge, a former nurse and former senior vice president and chief strategy officer of Kankakee-based Riverside Healthcare, there is no higher calling than the profession of nursing.

“Nurses have the privilege of being present at really important and critical times in someone’s life,” said Frogge, who dedicated the bulk of her life not only delivery care, comfort and compassion as a nurse, but also devoted her skills and energies to advancing Kankakee County medical care at Riverside.

For her tremendous impact during a 35-year career here, Frogge, of Kankakee, has been named the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient of the Daily Journal’s 2023 Citizen of the Year.

“Nursing is an extraordinary privilege,” she said. “A nurse becomes part of someone’s life at some extraordinary times in someone’s life. … Being with a family with that privilege in your hands is a special opportunity as a human being.”

It would be fair to say when it comes to Maggie Frogge, “privilege” is a two-way street.

While she was privileged to be involved and impactful in so many lives through needed medical care, longtime co-workers were equally privileged to have worked and learned with Maggie.

“Maggie was an icon to us,” explained Mary Kohl, now vice president of clinical services at Riverside. The two worked together for years.

“She was the role model. She was what you wanted to be,” Kohl said.

Kohl dropped names such as Jackie Onassis and Oprah Winfrey when describing the scope of her impact in the world of Kankakee health care.

“I was so sad when she retired. She was what I wanted to be. She lived our mission and she represented Riverside so well,” Kohl said.

And what made her even more special in the eyes of so many was Maggie earned every advancement. Nothing was given.

“She came up through the ranks,” Kohl said. “I would describe her as a risk taker. To be honest, I don’t know if [Riverside Healthcare] would have grown in a timely manner without her.

“Her decisions were very much on the edge, very innovative. She had such strategic thinking.”

But, she was quick to note, Maggie never strayed far from her training as a nurse. She always went back to the thought of providing care to someone in need.

“Her heart was that of a nurse. She never lost that. She never lost the heart of a nurse,” Kohl said.

MANY ADVANCES

A 1968 graduate of Bishop McNamara Catholic High School and a 1972 graduate of Northern Illinois University with a degree in nursing, Maggie would rank at the top of any region list when key people are recognized for health care service.

Consider:

• In 1980 she started her Riverside career following a 10-year stay at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago where she began her career in 1972.

• From 1977-80, she served as assistant chairwoman of surgical services at Rush.

• From 1980-87, she was Riverside’s administrative consultant and clinical nursing specialist.

• From 1989-91, she served as Riverside’s senior vice president of clinical services, following a two-year stint clinical services vice president.

• In 1992, she was elevated to the health care system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

• From 1995 through 2015, she served as Riverside’s senior vice president and chief strategy officer.

In other words, Maggie has had an impact in nearly every advancement taken by Riverside since returning professionally to Kankakee County.

She was at the lead when Riverside developed cancer, heart and neurosurgery therapies. Leadership often credits the ultimate development of those programs to Maggie.

When others may have considered those medical advancements for residents here to be left to big-city hospitals such as those in Chicago, Maggie pushed back.

‘LET’S MAKE THINGS BETTER’

Armed with a Master of Science in nursing oncology and administration from Rush University as a being designated a Nurse Scholar by the American Cancer Society, Maggie was one of four editors of “Cancer Nursing,” a reference text that has gone through eight editions.

But when it came to expanding Riverside’s scope of treatment, she asked a very simple question: Why not here?

“Let’s make things better. Let’s figure out what is it going to take,” she said.

Those were the marching orders she gave to herself as well as to others.

She conceded the challenge was at first daunting, but at the same time rewarding. Others were placing great confidence, great trust in her, along with great expectations.

“But you just keep the goal in mind,” Frogge said. “… We don’t have to accept these [unwanted] results. This is not our lot in life.”

She stressed she is not a pollyanna-type person.

“I’m realistic,” she said. “But I love saying ‘Where can we be? Where can we go?’”

Phil Kambic, Riverside president and CEO, said Riverside’s cancer program can be attributed to Maggie’s vision and hard work. He said the development of the organization’s open heart surgery program, completed under the tenure of former CEO Dennis Millirons, was also a direct result of Maggie.

“Maggie is very strategic,” he said. “She helps you think outside the box. She makes you think differently.”

When she informed Kambic of her retirement plans in 2014, she gave him a year as she planned to step away in 2015.

For Kambic, it was a long year. While somewhat sad for himself, he knew his friend had earned her retirement.

“It’s always hard to see someone go, someone with whom you’ve spent so much time,” he said.

Maggie was honored in 2021 as the recipient of the prestigious Samaritan of the Year honor Riverside. She was also named the Kankakee Jaycees “Outstanding Citizen” in 1990. In 1992, she earned the Athena award, an award given to a person who advances and supports the goals of professional women.

WHAT WOULD MAGGIE FROGGE DO?

For Mary Schore, Riverside’s now-retired director of quality improvements, her career and Maggie’s career largely mirrored one another. They both began as nurses and found themselves gaining greater responsibilities.

Schore said Maggie had the great gift of being a strategic thinker, an innovative thinker.

“She was always helping you move ahead. She would get you to think of the future. She was always challenging,” Schore said. “She was a good leader, a great leader.”

Seemingly, no matter what the task, the objective, the mission, Schore said Maggie had the uncanny ability to find the right person to put into the role.

Like others, Schore said Frogge never was satisfied with something being “good enough.”

“She always challenged me to accept greater challenges. She was the leader you could really look up to,” said Schore. “… She always challenged you in good ways.”

As Maggie now is able to spend more time with family and friends, she can still be found at Riverside. She doesn’t go in as often as she would perhaps want to, because she wants to stay out of the way.

She knew the time had come for new leaders to emerge and drive the hospital forward.

The health system has not disappointed her. It remains in forward motion.

The former west Kankakee farm girl was taught by her parents, the late Bernard and Jeanne Hansen, that one should never settle. Life is about pushing forward, striving for better.

That training may have been what initially pushed her to work at Rush. But when she returned in 1980, she confesses she could not have imagined what a wonderful career she was set to embark upon in her hometown.

“I left here. I wanted to live the big city life,” she said. “It was the dream, it was cool. The idea of being in an academic center. It was an adventure.”

But finding her footing here and raising her family here could not have been any greater.

“Riverside was always more than a job to me,” she said. “I was able to live my passion.”

But that word, “privilege,” came up once more.

“Most importantly, the privilege of being present in someone’s life,” Maggie said. “The nurses are the hub of a health care team. It’s an important, privileged, special role.”

And her leadership has not been lost on those who were fortunate enough to have been in her presence.

Whenever Mary Kohl contemplates a tough situation, she thinks of Maggie.

“It’s something I often do,” she said. “I ask myself ‘What would Maggie Frogge think? What would Maggie Frogge do?’”

The ultimate compliment.