YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - The Avera Sacred Heart Hospital has purchased Yankton’s Lewis and Clark Specialty Hospital for nearly $13.2 million.
The hospital deal went into effect Saturday, giving Lewis and Clark the new name Avera Surgical Hospital on the Avera Fox Run Health Campus, the Yankton Press & Dakotan (https://bit.ly/2oF1PE7 ) reported.
The campus contains the surgical hospital, Avera Medical Group Family Medicine and Avera Fox Run Medical Plaza, which will include independent clinic offices. The purchase included all the buildings, property, and plant and hospital equipment.
Avera CEO Doug Ekeren said that all 55 Lewis and Clark employees will become Avera employees. He called the purchase “exciting.”
“We all know there are a lot of moving parts right now in the health care systems nationally and a lot of uncertainty to how those systems might change and reform,” Ekeren said. “One of the things that is fairly constant that we hear about is new, collaborative ways that health care providers need to work together.”
Ekeren added that Lewis and Clark employees still have some “reasonable” questions.
“The folks out here have two weeks to learn about those kinds of things (changes),” he said. “They have a very narrow window to make important decisions about benefits that will affect their families.”
The campus will serve as a remote site of the Avera Sacred Heart Hospital. The medical group has been part of Yankton for 118 years.
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Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan, https://www.yankton.net/
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