A VIEW Life at a Top 20 Rural Community Hospital
T
H I S S P R I N G , W H E N the National Rural Health Association released its annual list of Top 20 Rural Community Hospitals, three South Dakota hospitals were on it. In fact, South
Dakota
was
second
only to Indiana — which had five — in the number of institutions on the list. In addition to Avera St. Mary’s in Pierre, the list included two independent hospitals — Brookings Health System in Brookings and Prairie Lakes Healthcare System in Watertown. It was the third Top 20 designation
in four years for PLHS and the second time in three for Brookings. What allows these small, independent rural hospitals to continue to thrive while so many others are forced to sell out or fold? For insights, we turned to two people who have made these hospitals their professional homes.
INVESTING WISELY Brookings Health System includes a
“
We have been able to recruit fairly easily whereas in some places it’s awfully hard. 10
49-bed hospital, a nursing home, senior living apartments, an eye clinic, and medical clinics in Arlington, White, and Volga. Family medicine physician and Madison native Andrew Ellsworth, MD,
”
has been with the system for the last seven years. As a member of the board of trustees, Dr. Ellsworth believes
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