Pilot Site Profile
Sanford USD Medical Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sanford Cancer Center
1305 W. 18th Street
Sioux Falls, SD 57105
Web sites:
Hospital: www.sanfordhealth.org
Cancer Center: www.sanfordhealth.org/CentersofExcellence/Cancer/
Pat O’Brien, MD, President, Sanford USD Medical Center
Dan Blue, MD, President, Sanford Clinic
Thomas Asfeldt, Principal Investigator/NCCCP Pilot Leader
Becky Nelson, Senior Vice President & COO, Health Services Operations, Sanford Health
Background
The Sanford USD Medical Center is the largest tertiary hospital in South Dakota with nearly 500 beds. It serves as the primary teaching institution for the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota. The Medical Center serves as a regional institution, with half of its patients coming from outside the immediate Sioux Falls community. The Sanford Cancer Center is the region's largest, treating more than 1,278 new patients in 2005. Sanford Health System includes Sanford USD Medical Center, Sanford Cancer Center, and Sanford Clinic, a 375 multispecialty physician group located in 115 clinics, 24 regional hospitals, 13 nursing homes, 27 home health programs, and 19 pharmacies serving 66 different communities in the four-state area of South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa.
Patient Service Area
The Sanford Medical Center serves a large rural population in the upper Plains states. Predominantly white (94 percent), the Sioux Falls community’s largest minority group is American Indian, at 3.1 percent. (American Indians represent 8.6 percent of South Dakota’s population.) In addition to being sparsely populated (many areas have densities of less than 10 people per square mile), Sanford’s service area has a relatively older population, with more than 20 percent of residents being over age 65. These older, geographically-isolated communities carry a significant cancer burden. Studies conducted in South Dakota reveal the reality of health disparities: fewer than 40 percent of American Indian women age 50 and above reported having had a clinical breast exam and mammogram within the preceding two years, compared to 86 percent of all U.S. women in this age group. Mortality data show American Indians have a six-fold rate of death compared to Whites and to South Dakota’s total population.
Access and Outreach Initiatives
Access to quality cancer care is limited in South Dakota by lack of health insurance, cost of care, travel time, education, and cultural and language barriers. Sanford Health System has identified these as major factors to address in reducing health disparities. Sanford serves its scattered population through 19 critical access hospitals, which serve as a safety net to ensure Medicare beneficiaries and other patients access to healthcare in rural areas. In addition, the Sanford Cancer Center conducts education on the benefits of screening and clinical trials and utilizes its mobile mammography services, Partners in Prevention, and other resources to reach its rural, elderly, poor, and minority patients.
