Prairie Lakes Health Portrait of a Top 20 Rural Hospital
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BY ALEX STRAUSS
HIS SPRING, PRAIRIE LAKES HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN WATERTOWN, South Dakota, a town of 22,000, was named among the Top 20 Rural Community Hospitals in the nation by iVantage Health Analytics. Prairie Lakes was the only independent hospital in our region to make the list, which was based on eight indices including inpatient and outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspectives, costs, charge and financial stability.
How has this small-town health system, which now includes a cancer center, a surgical center, and
dialysis units, managed to achieve this level of success, continually expand its size and services, and remain independent while the population of Watertown has held steady? President and CEO Jill Fuller says it started more than 15 years ago with an intentional decision by the hospital board. At that time, Prairie Lakes employed only one specialty physician—a radiation oncologist. “Our board made a strategic decision in 2003 when I was Chief Nursing Officer that we were going to better serve the 90,000 people in our 10-county service area by expanding our services,” says Fuller, who took the helm of the organization in 2009. “We are 100 miles away from Sioux Falls. Some of our people are 100 or 150 miles away from specialty services. So we knew they needed better access.”
Architect's rendering of Prairie Lakes Healthcare System with the new Prairie Lakes Specialty Clinic addition
October 2017
“ IT WAS SO ‘OUT-OF-THE-BOX’ TO IMAGINE THAT WE COULD START AN INT 16
