Avera head: No room for Sanford in city

There’s no room for a second health-care system in Mitchell, according to the top official at Avera Queen of Peace Health Services.

“We don’t need that, unless you don’t want to have good, quality health care,” Tom Rasmusson, president and CEO of Avera Queen of Peace, said during an interview this week with The Daily Republic.

Mark Johnston, vice president of administration and corporate communications for Sanford Health, has a different view.

“We’re a society of choices, and nothing is more important to us as individuals than our health,” Johnston said in a separate interview. “So when we’re able to respond to what the patients need by bringing Sanford Clinic physicians to the community, it’s a good thing for the community.”

Though Avera does not welcome it, Sanford Health is growing its presence in Mitchell. Sanford recently announced that one of its Sioux Falls-based neurosurgeons began providing outreach services to Mitchell in March, the same month that Sanford added a second pediatrician to its Sanford Children’s Clinic Mitchell.

The children’s clinic opened in 2007 when a doctor from Pediatrics Plus — located literally in the shadow of Avera Queen of Peace Hospital — defected to start the new venture with Sanford.

Two other Sanford physicians have provided outreach services to Mitchell since 2002 and 2007, respectively, and Sanford also operates Prairie Crossings assisted living center in Mitchell, in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society.

Avera, meanwhile, operates Mitchell’s sole hospital and numerous affiliated facilities, with a total of 735 employees in the city. The hospital was formed from a merger of the old Methodist and St. Joseph’s hospitals in 1991.

Since that merger, there has not been a health-care rivalry in Mitchell like the one in Sioux Falls, where Avera and Sanford are both headquartered. But since Sanford (formerly called Sioux Valley) received a $400 million gift from philanthropist T. Denny Sanford in 2007, the health system has expanded its presence in other communities.

One of the initiatives funded by Sanford’s gift is a large new investment in children’s health, of which Sanford’s children’s clinic in Mitchell is a part.

A central part of the children’s health initiative is a new Children’s Hospital in Sioux Falls, to which Mitchell native and NBA player Mike Miller donated $1 million. Mount Vernon native and NFL player Chad Greenway donated $100,000.

At the time of Miller’s donation in 2007, Sanford CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft told The Daily Republic that Sanford Health “absolutely” had plans for expansion in Mitchell beyond its children’s clinic.

“This is certainly not the last that Mitchell will see of Sanford Health,” he said.

Rasmusson has a laminated clipping of that story on his desk, with Krabbenhoft’s quote highlighted in yellow.

Rasmusson believes a bigger Sanford push into Mitchell would be detrimental to health care in the city, and he believes a Sanford project at Aberdeen will prove his point. Sanford is planning a new hospital there that will compete with Avera St. Luke’s.

Rasmusson predicts that both Aberdeen hospitals will spend millions on the same equipment. Instead of one hospital spending $1 million to buy a CT scanner, he said as an example, there will be two hospitals each buying their own CT scanners.

“All that’s happening is they’re just going to duplicate the services up there and create two of what I call weak hospitals, because neither of them will have the capital to expand for new services or anything else,” Rasmusson said.

A bigger Sanford presence in Mitchell — whatever form that might take — would not only have the same effect, Rasmusson said, but also would make it difficult to recruit specialists to the city. He said physicians won’t want to come to a community where there’s competitive turmoil between two health systems.

Rasmusson also believes that the philosophies of Avera and Sanford, which are perhaps best summarized by their respective marketing slogans, are incompatible.

Sanford’s slogan, “Improving the human condition,” speaks to its stated desire to transform, with the aid of its $400 million gift, into a prestigious center of innovation in the style of Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic.

Avera’s slogan, “Look no further,” speaks to its stated desire to operate “a regional partnership of health professionals who share support services to maintain excellent care.”

“We think that we can take care of the folks in this region. That is our ministry and our mission,” Rasmusson said. “… The Sanford philosophy is different, in that they really emphasize having people get the services in Sioux Falls.”

Rasmusson’s views are echoed by the local planning group Focus 2020, which issued a report this month from its Regional Healthcare Subcommittee. The report included the following statement, which could be taken as a preemptive strike against any major Sanford plan to expand in Mitchell:

“The Focus 2020 Regional Healthcare Committee recommends continued use of one hospital in Mitchell.”

Johnston said Sanford Health isn’t bothered by Avera loyalties. Sanford adds outreach programs when communities ask for them, he said, and will continue to do so.

“As we sit here right now, there are no additional plans in the works other than what we’re doing now,” Johnston said of Mitchell.

“Certainly, as patients request more services, we’ll certainly listen to what our patients tell us.”

Tags: health care, news, avera, sanford, hospital