Hospital consolidation stimulated health care progress
When it was announced 20 years ago that the two hospitals in Aberdeen would become one, health care changed direction in the Hub City . The consolidation of Dakota Midland and St. Luke’s hospitals meant the loss of two separate entities, but allowed the resurrection of a new and stronger organization now known as Avera St. Luke’s.
Today, it’s clear that the expansion of services and technology, along with the wide variety of health care professionals found in the community, have occurred even more quickly than anticipated two decades ago. Health care has grown and flourished in the Aberdeen region.
“The pre-consolidation competition in the Aberdeen health care community was very intense,” remembers Glenn Jakober, who then worked at Dakota Midland and today is director of Avera St. Luke’s Budget and Reimbursement. An example of that intensity is the cancer treatment/linear accelerator dispute. The state Supreme Court ruled in October 1987 that St. Luke’s could install a $1.3 million state-of-the-art linear accelerator for radiation therapy, ending a 2.5-year battle to win approval that included a request from Dakota Midland for a restraining order to stop the project. Dakota Midland had installed a new cobalt unit for cancer treatment nearly two years earlier.
Surprise consolidation
In an $11 million transaction that took place after months of negotiations, St. Luke’s acquired the assets of Dakota Midland in 1988. “Difficult as the consolidation was for the community, trying to run two competing inpatient hospitals in our market for the past 20 years would have been nearly impossible,” Jakober said. “The consolidation provided an opportunity to have unity. President and CEO Dale Stein and consolidation manager Anne Renz did a banner job of carrying out the consolidation.”
Ron L. Jacobson, who today serves as president and CEO of Avera St. Luke’s, said the new hospital, first called St. Luke’s Midland Regional Medical Center , has benefited Aberdeen and the region in many ways. “It made it possible to better utilize resources by eliminating the duplication of equipment and services,” he said. “Physicians and employees came together to better focus on meeting the needs of our patients and their families. With combined efforts and funding, we were able to create new services.”
Pat Cavanaugh, a nine-year veteran of Dakota Midland at the time of the consolidation, said merging the two hospitals eliminated duplication between two acute care facilities. Cavanaugh is now director of Quality/Patient Services at Avera St. Luke’s. “I think the biggest personal effect this had on me was the many new friendships that I made. The number of people that I would have never otherwise come to know has become a very important aspect to me.”
Dakota Midland employees gather — one last time
While the hospital employees came together as one big unit, a group of former Dakota Midland employees has continued to meet socially throughout the years. On July 18-19, they gathered for one last time in Aberdeen to mark the 20th anniversary of the consolidation, a tribute to the memory of Dakota Midland.
What would happen to employees was a big concern back in 1988, as all acute-care and emergency patients would be served at the St. Luke’s site on South State Street , the current location of Avera St. Luke’s. “In general, the treatment of employees was carried out in a very compassionate manner, keeping in mind that often mergers of organizations can be very ruthless,” Jakober said.
About 85 percent of the two hospital’s employees were retained, but up to 80 full-time positions would be lost at Dakota Midland. At the time, St. Luke’s employed 570 part- and full-time employees, while Dakota Midland employed 336. Today, Avera St. Luke’s has grown to include the Hospital Division, Clinic Division and Long-Term Care Division, including Avera Mother Joseph Retirement Community in Aberdeen and Avera Eureka Health Care Center . Employees total nearly 1,400, with almost 1,100 in the hospital division.
Physicians, employees and volunteers have collaborated throughout the years to help the hospital find its new identity and build on the strengths of the former organizations, Jacobson said. “We have been able to build stronger relationships with providers throughout the region, ensuring that we can provide care close to home.”
Growth of services
Services that initially benefited from the consolidation were inpatient rehab services, which later moved to the main campus in 1998, and expanded cancer care treatment. “Patients that were referred into our area were now assured that they would receive the best that Aberdeen had to offer,” Jakober said.
“The Midland campus has allowed our therapy services to grow immensely since 1988,” added Jill Hanley, director of Laboratory and Rehabilitation Services at Avera St. Luke’s. “All of our therapy disciplines (occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy) have most of their outpatient services located at the Midland campus. We’ve grown a very busy pediatric therapy program, Back and Neck Clinic, Massage Therapy, WorkSmart, DriveSmart, all of which came after the consolidation and are still located at the Midland Campus.”
Growing programs, new construction
Today, Avera St. Luke’s is licensed for 139 beds and cares for nearly 6,000 inpatients each year. Outpatient visits have reached more than 215,000 per year. While programs and services have grown at the Midland campus, all new construction with the latest technology available has taken place inside and around the main St. Luke’s campus. Health care in Aberdeen continues to grow and keep pace with changing needs.
Avera St. Luke’s Timeline Since Consolidation, 1988-Present
Major new services and building projects at Avera St. Luke’s include:
1988 — Cancer Care Center opens, housing a state-of-the-art linear accelerator
1989 — Rehab Center opens at the Midland campus (moved to the St. Luke’s campus in 1998)
1991-92 — Recruited first specialists in neurosurgery and neurology and began offering neurosurgery services
1992 — CareFlight emergency helicopter transport service makes it first flight
1993 — Business Health gets its start with injury/job site evaluations for work conditioning and work hardening programs to help injured employees return to work quickly
1993 — A new East Wing provides an improved Emergency Department, Patient Admissions area, Same Day Surgery Center and expanded surgical suites, Outpatient Services, Kidney Dialysis, Endoscopy, Cardiac Rehab and Cardiac/Angiography Lab and a complete laboratory
1994 — In-house MRI is purchased
1994 — Dakota Medical Square is completed, built to house medical offices and clinics
1995 — Cardiac Cath Lab is developed to do vascular and cardiac diagnostic procedures
1998 — Pain Management Center opens, and grows so quickly that it moves to Dakota Medical Square
1998 — New Sleep Lab provides a testing environment and technology to diagnose the cause of sleeping problems and to guide treatment
2005 — Avera St. Luke’s Physical and Aquatic Therapy Center is completed including a warm water therapy pool
2006 — The hospital’s southeast addition opens, with a new ICU, BirthPlace, physician clinics and undeveloped space on the main floor left open for future improvements
2006 — Avera St. Luke’s Healthcare Plaza opens, including the Imaging Center
2008 — Interventional cardiology now available, offering balloon angioplasty and stent placement
2008 — State Street Medical Square is being built, a medical office building that will be completed in October
2008 – Undeveloped space on the main floor of the southeast addition is now under construction and will be a new, more spacious and convenient surgery center
