Avera Health

Avera Health is a regional health system based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, comprising more than 300 locations in 100 communities throughout South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota.[1] Avera serves a geographical footprint of more than 72,000 square miles and 86 counties, and a population of nearly 1 million.[1]

Avera Health
TypeNon-Profit
Founded1897
HeadquartersSioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
Key people
Bob Sutton, President & CEO (Retired 2023
Websitewww.avera.org

As a fully integrated health system, Avera Health includes Avera Medical Group, which is composed of physicians and advanced practice providers who serve patients at nearly 200 secure locations[2] across the five-state region.[3]

Throughout the region, Avera Health offers care in 60 distinct specialties, including behavioral health, cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, brain and spine, neurosurgery, digestive disease, bariatrics, dermatology, endocrinology and diabetes, ophthalmology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, pain management, neonatology, pediatrics, rheumatology, women’s specialties and more.[4]

In addition to care, Avera Health Plans was created in 1999 to offer affordable health insurance and a large network of providers.[5] Today, Avera Health Plans serves individuals, families, and employer groups in South Dakota and Iowa and is the third largest health plan in the state of South Dakota.

With more than 16,000 employees and physicians, Avera is South Dakota’s largest private employer. The name Avera is derived from a Latin term meaning “to be well.”

History

Avera came into existence when two orders of religious women—the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, South Dakota,[6] and the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen, South Dakota[7]—merged their Catholic health care systems into a single entity.

These two religious orders serve as Avera’s sponsors; that is, their association with Avera gives it the status of officially being a work of the Catholic Church.

  • Over the years, the sisters have served in many roles, from governance and administration, to nursing, lab and dietary.
  • Their focus is on meeting the health care needs of the communities they serve.

Services

Avera eCARE

Avera has provided virtual care that dates back to 1993.[8] eCARE uses interactive video and technology to connect with outlying sites through a virtual hospital based in Sioux Falls.[8] eCARE partners with hospitals to provide increased access to specialists through:

Avera eCARE was sold to Aquiline Capital Partners in the fourth quarter of 2021 and rebranded as Avel eCare.[14]

Avera Careflight

Avera health has operated an air ambulance since May 1986.[15]

Research, genomics and genetics

Avera’s genomics team involves multiple professionals locally and internationally. Working primarily with breast and gynecologic cancer patients, this team uses genetic analysis to recommend therapies targeted to fight an individual tumor.[16] The Avera Institute for Human Genetics offers personalized medicine for pain management,[17] behavioral health[18] and more, plus DNA analysis as part of the world’s largest twin study, the Netherlands Twins Register (NTR).[19] The Avera Research Institute is conducts clinical trials,[20][21] cancer registries for breast[22] and thyroid tumors, oncology research nurses, and investigator initiated studies.

Since 2011, Avera has been part of an international trial based in Salzburg, Austria, testing a protocol for women age 41 and over with early stage breast cancer that delivers electron-based intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) at the time of lumpectomy[23] followed by three weeks of external beam radiation therapy, shortening follow-up external beam radiation therapy by three weeks. A new protocol is testing one-time IORT treatment for patients age 60 and over, eliminating the need for additional radiation.

Solid organ and bone marrow transplant

Avera is home to the region’s longest standing kidney transplant program, established in 1993,[24] in addition to pancreas and liver transplant. In 1996, Avera began the region’s only Bone Marrow Transplant program, providing both allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantation.

Clinics and centers

Through its 300 locations, Avera contains various facilities:

  • Primary care clinics and rural clinics
  • Specialty clinics
  • Tertiary care center
  • Community hospitals
  • Critical access hospitals
  • Specialty heart hospital
  • Long-term care and retirement communities
  • Behavioral health outpatient and inpatient care for seniors, adults, adolescents and children
  • Free-standing outpatient surgery center
  • Patient-centered cancer centers
  • Sports training and fitness facilities
  • Home care and hospice
  • Home medical equipment

Locations

The Avera Central Office is based in Sioux Falls, S.D., with six regional centers:

Other Locations

References
  1. "About Avera Health". www.avera.org. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  2. "Improving Hospital Security with ID Badges". IDWholesaler.com. Plasco ID. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  3. Rodak, Sabrina. "100 Integrated Health Systems to Know". www.beckershospitalreview.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  4. "CareerMD | Avera Medical Group Snapshot". www.careermd.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  5. "Avera Health Plans - South Dakota Health Insurance Plans from Avera Health Plans". www.ehealthinsurance.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  6. "Our History". Yankton Benedictines Sacred Heart Ministry. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  7. "History". Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  8. Schwan, Jodi. "Avera's inadvertent innovation". Argus Leader. Gannett. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  9. Tomsic, Michael (14 April 2015). "Hospitals Monitor ICU Patients Virtually, From Many Miles Away". WFAE 90.7. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  10. Iverson, Jake. "Avera Medical Minute AMcK: eCare telemedicine receives(sic) federal focus". KSFY. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  11. "Avera Receives Grant To Expand Rural Telemedicine". Yankton Press & Dakotan. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  12. Page, Douglas. "2011 Most Wired Innovator Awards". Hospital & Health Networks. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  13. "Avera eCARE Celebrates Milestone Anniversaries". Midwest Medical Edition. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  14. "Avera Health Announces Acquisition of Avera eCare by Aquiline Capital Partners". www.avera.org. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  15. Miranda Paige. "Avera Medical Minute: Careflight celebrates 35 years". www.dakotanewsnow.com. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  16. Iverson, Jake. "Avera Medical Minute AMcK: genomic sequencing for help in treating cancer". KSFY.
  17. Walker, Jon. "Avera Health to start matching pain killers with genetics". Argus Leader. Gannett. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  18. Jake, Iverson. "Avera Medical Minute AMcK: Personalized medicine for behavioral health patients". KSFY. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  19. Schwan, Jodi. "Avera's international research partnership grows". Argus Leader. Gannett. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  20. "Exemestane with or without Entinostat in Treating Patients with Recurrent Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer That is Locally Advanced or Metastatic". National Cancer Institute.
  21. "Tamoxifen Citrate, Letrozole, Anastrozole, or Exemestane with or without Chemotherapy in Treating Patients with Invasive RxPONDER Breast Cancer". National Cancer Institute.
  22. "Breast Cancer Registry". Northern Great Plains Oncology. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  23. Iverson, Jake. "Avera Medical Minute: IntraOperative Electron Radiation Therapy". KSFY. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  24. Walker, Jon. "Landmark transplant reflects surgical leap". Argus Leader.
  25. Brookings. "Access Health – Brookings & Avera Medical Group Brookings - Brookings, SD". www.avera.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
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