Pride & Promise: Healthcare Leaders Share their Wins for '24 and their Hopes for '25

John Ayoub, CEO, Mobridge Regional Hospital & Clinics, Mobridge, South Dakota

John Ayoub, CEO, Mobridge Regional Hospital & Clinics

In our ongoing effort to keep our metaphorical finger on the pulse of what's happening in our wide and diverse medical community, we invited regional healthcare leaders to share their insights about the year past and the year to come. Our hope is that you'll learn something new about the health systems around you, get to know some of the people at the helm, and find inspiration for your own organizations as we navigate a new year.

1) What are you proudest/most excited about what your organization has initiated or accomplished in 2024?

This year has been one of opportunity and challenge. We moved into new inpatient and obstetrics units, built a new pharmacy, brought on a new general surgeon, and will welcome a new FP/OB later this year. We started the year moving into new construction and then segued to major renovations.

We could not have done this without an extraordinary team. They support and care for each other; they rally around the cause and fulfill the mission, even through complex circumstances and day-to-day challenges. Through the entirety of our building project, they never stopped providing the highest quality, compassionate, and professional care. I could not be prouder to be associated with the wonderful women and men of MRH&C.

2) What are you most looking forward to or hopeful about for your organization in the coming year?

I am really looking forward to 2025; it will be an exciting year full of new opportunities for Mobridge Regional Hospital & Clinics (MRH&C).

We look to wrap up a construction project that has been going strong for years and will increase our Mobridge facility footprint by about 33% (30,000 ft²) with roughly the same square footage being renovated. In 2025, we will open our new infusion center, which will allow us to expand on an already robust offering of outpatient infusions, including chemotherapy.

We also look forward to going live with our new surgical services department. This will incorporate all of our current surgical services together, improving efficiency and patient satisfaction, while maintaining and improving our ability to provide high quality care. As the only facility providing surgical and obstetrical care within a 100-mile radius, this investment is significant and will only make our people more efficient and capable.

Later in the year we will open our new emergency department, functionally located between our inpatient unit and our diagnostic imaging department, which is right next to surgery. These departmental adjacencies will increase efficiency and positively impact our care team.

Finally, we look to wrap up the entirety of this building project with some renovations to our primary care clinic as well as expansion and improvements to our specialty clinic, which will allow us to house and meet the needs of existing and additional specialists to perform outreach and serve our patients right here close to home.