South Dakota Healthcare News

We're just three weeks away from SDAHO's 2026 Annual Convention, September 16–18 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center! If you haven't registered yet, now is the time to do so, and join us as we celebrate A Century Strong: Honoring Our Past, Shaping Our Future.

Recruiting great employees is only the beginning. Keeping them engaged, supported and growing within your organization is just as important.

Nearly 63 million Americans—almost 1 in 4 U.S. adults—provide unpaid care to a family member or friend with a complex medical condition or disability. Caregivers of adults alone provide an estimated 49.5 billion hours of unpaid care each year, valued at more than $1 trillion.

Last month, from The SDAHO Vault we looked back at the first 25 years of the South Dakota Hospital Association, from its beginnings in 1926 through 1951. This month, we're opening the vault again and moving ahead 50 years — from 1952 to 2001.

Monument Health Rapid City Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology's NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2026 making 15 consecutive years receiving the honor. Rapid City Hospital is one of only 350 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor, with fewer maintaining Platinum-level performance for 15 consecutive years.

Amanda Sedlacek, DO, MSA, FACP, FACOI, FAAHPM, Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine Physician at Yankton Medical Clinic, has been selected by the Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care Planning Committee to present nationally at the 2027 National Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in March 2027.

Monument Health Rapid City Hospital has been named among U.S. News & World Report's 2026-2027 Best Hospitals edition as a High Performing hospital for Heart Arrhythmia, Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Kidney Failure and Stroke. This is the highest distinction a hospital can earn as part of U.S. News' Best Hospitals Procedures & Conditions ratings.

During September, which is National Suicide Prevention Month, Avera has launched its Ask the Question public service campaign for the fifth year.

Ophthalmology Limited is celebrating an exciting new chapter with the expansion of its Eye Surgery Center and the addition of Neuro-Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus services. This fall, the practice will welcome healthcare partners and community members to a special open house, offering guests an opportunity to tour the expanded facility, meet members of the team, and learn more about the growing range of specialized eye care services available close to home.

Sanford USD Medical Center has been named to the Becker's Healthcare list of 100 Great Hospitals in America. The Sioux Falls medical center is the only hospital in the state of South Dakota to be named to the list.

Monument Health has received three American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines® achievement awards for demonstrating a commitment to following up-to-date, research-based guidelines for the treatment of heart disease and stroke, helping save lives, support recovery and reduce hospital readmissions.

Monument Health has been awarded two grants through South Dakota's Rural Health Transformation Project, state funding aimed at strengthening access, quality, and long-term sustainability of rural health care. The grants will support Care Connect and the Telemed Transfer Center, two initiatives designed to bring more timely, specialized care to patients across Monument Health's rural and frontier service area.

Good Samaritan – Ridge View Estates senior living administrator, Melissa McCorquodale, has been named the 2026 Provider Achieving Care Excellence (ACE) Leader of the Year by the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL).

VanceThompson Vision is pleased to announce the addition of Aaron M. Ricca, MD, and the return of retina care to their practice. Dr. Aaron M. Ricca is an established, board-certified, fellowship-trained ophthalmologist specializing in vitreoretinal disease.

Seven Sanford Health hospitals across four states have earned recognition from the American College of Cardiology. Sanford USD Medical Center in South Dakota, Sanford Medical Center Fargo and Sanford Bismarck Medical Center in North Dakota, Sanford Bemidji Medical Center in Minnesota, and Marshfield Medical Center and Marshfield Medical Center -Weston in Wisconsin have all received the ACC's NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2026. Those six locations are among only 350 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

Sanford Health and North Memorial Health today announced the organizations have finalized their partnership and are now one nonprofit integrated health system operating as Sanford Health. The combined organization will preserve Robbinsdale Hospital and its essential role as a Level I Trauma Center while making significant investments that improve care, expand access and build a stronger rural-urban network across Minnesota.

Sanford Health Watertown is excited to welcome Physical Therapists Jett McGirr, DPT, and Lauren Lenards, PT, to the Sanford Watertown Rehabilitation and Therapy family.

Stroke care is a team effort, and there has never been a better opportunity to connect, learn, and collaborate with professionals dedicated to improving outcomes for patients across South Dakota.

Avera Queen of Peace Hospital is pleased to announce that Walipawn Schroeder, RN is the most recent recipient of its quarterly nurse recognition program called the DAISY Award.

Accessible writing and GEO-readiness reward the same practices — and understanding why gives you a much stronger argument for both. This article explains where they overlap, what the shared patterns look like, and how to use that overlap to get writing quality taken seriously in rooms where it hasn't been yet.

We've been offering generative engine optimization (GEO) audits for a while now — for our financial services and B2B clients, as free check-ups for conference attendees, and even on our own web properties — in order to provide some insights on how well content is structured to appear in answer engine results.

For the past 18 months, the conversation around GEO — generative engine optimization, or the practice of structuring content so AI-powered search tools can find and cite it — has focused on independent research and assumptions about structured content. It's happened largely without input from any of the major AI-assisted chatbot tools.

Monument Health announced the opening of a two-bed Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) at Rapid City Hospital. The unit, which began seeing patients in February 2026, is the first of its kind in the region and represents a significant investment in neurological care for communities across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming.

Avera Health has been named on the Forbes list of America’s Best-In-State Employers 2026 for South Dakota. Avera ranks third on the list and is the first ranking health care system.

Monument Health Rapid City Hospital has earned the Leapfrog Full Transparency Badge, recognizing the hospital's commitment to publicly reporting information about patient safety and quality through the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey.

Consider SDAHO’s NEW Group Registration Package

If you haven’t registered for SDAHO’s 100th Annual Convention yet, now is the perfect time—and this year there’s a new option that makes it even easier to invest in your team.

24 hospitals across S.D. are being recognized by the American Heart Association for their commitment to improving care for patients with heart disease and stroke through Get With The Guidelines® quality improvement programs. Nationwide, more than 3,000 hospitals take part in these efforts, helping ensure patients receive care aligned with the most up‑to‑date, research‑based treatment guidelines.

The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO) is pleased to announce that Michelle Jury, BSN, RN, CPHQ, Clinical Improvement Consultant, has been appointed to the Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) Endorsement and Maintenance Primary Prevention Committee—a prestigious national volunteer role that helps shape the future of health care quality measurement across the United States.

Sanford Health has announced promotions for leaders at Sanford Health Watertown aligning with the continued integration of the former Prairie Lakes Healthcare System (PLHS) and Sanford Health.