Avera advances aimed at countering unaffordable health care
That's the take of
In other words, it's vital to keep providing quality care while simultaneously evolving for the future, said
"We need to look five to 10 years out," he said. "We have to think, 'Are we ready, viable enough, operating in a way that allows us to be prepared (for) what happens next?'"
Part of that involves keeping people healthy, Forkel said. That's a big reason Avera is opening its first
The current
"We take it seriously that we need to change how health care is delivered," Forkel said. "We can't just be about doing more and more expensive tests."
The costs of health care simply are not sustainable, he said.
The work being done
That's through pharmacogenetics, which will eliminate trial and error by singling out medicines that works and don't work for patients, he said.
Tests to figure out which prescriptions an individual could metabolize used to run about
That's one example of how Avera is making health care more affordable, Forkel said.
Room to grow
Sustaining the health care system also means looking at growth opportunities, said Sutton, who in June took over for
That's something Avera needs to prepare for from both a financial and people standpoint.
Forkel said maintaining connections with people and communities is key during the process.
"Yes, we want to be high tech, but we also want to be high touch," he said. "I think it was
Sutton said Avera wants to build on its fairly sizable geographic footprint.
Within in the next month, all six of the system's regions will offer cancer services. The new Hemsley Center opens in Pierre
"We will bring care as close to home as we possibly can," he said. "That's a fundamental part of who we are, and I don't see that changing."
Avera will continue to standardize care across facilities so patients are treated the same at each.
"I think that's a difference-maker for the way we do business," Sutton said.
The sisters' philosophy has always been that care is always best given locally, Forkel said, which means offering as much rural care as possible.
To that end, there's the prospect of a new Avera facility in
A new hospital in
The hospital was projected to cost just more than
Other priorities
Behavior health and addiction services remain a top concern, too.
In
The current behavior health space at
It's not uncommon to have all of the beds in the St. Luke's mental health unit full, Forkel said. It has 10 in-patient and two detox beds.
"As we move forward to do our plans here in this community, which are constantly evolving, behavioral health will be at that top of that list," Forkel said.
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