Sanford hiring 100 workers for SD heart hospital

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SIOUX FALLS (AP) — Dakotas-based Sanford Health will hire more than 100 workers as it prepares to move into its new heart hospital in Sioux Falls.

Sanford will begin offering tours of its new $74 million, seven-story specialty hospital in February. The first patients are to arrive in early March.

"We look at this as a 100-plus-year building to anticipate the needs of a rapidly growing community," Orlen Tschetter, vice president of facilities and planning for Sanford, told the media.

Sanford's cross-town rival, Avera, has run a heart hospital in Sioux Falls since 2001. Jon Soderholm, president and CEO OF Avera Heart, said Sanford chose a curious time to open a specialty hospital.

"Cardiac care in this country peaked three to four years ago, leveled off and is going down," he said.

Sanford said an aging population, an epidemic of obesity, a need for preventive services and a growing regional marketplace all indicate a demand for services.

Sanford's heart hospital will open with 24 inpatient rooms and space for 56 more. It will have three operating rooms, with room for six, and three procedure labs, with room for nine. It also will have 31 short-stay rooms for outpatients.

Cardiologists, surgeons and staff members will move over from Sanford's current heart program in its main medical center. The hiring of maintenance, nursing and dietary workers will push total employment past the 5,000 mark at Sanford's multipurpose midtown campus. Sanford will the first private business in Sioux Falls to hit that employment level in one location.

"They're a real powerhouse, not just for doctors and nurses, but support positions and research," said Mary Medema, director of workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

Sanford has 7,600 employees in the Sioux Falls area and more than 20,000 in the Upper Midwest.

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