SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — People would die if this hospital’s emergency room wasn’t available in Martin, hospital board member Dave Jones said.
“People depend on this in a life-saving situation,” Jones said of the Bennett County Hospital. “…if someone is having a heart attack, they don’t have time to go to Rapid City. Here in Bennett County, we can stabilize them in the ER.”
Without the Bennett County Hospital, the nearest hospital is 90 minutes away in Phillip in one direction, and about 90 minutes in the other direction in Winner, said the hospital’s chief executive officer Shandel Anson. According to the Pine Ridge Agency, part of the Pine Ridge Reservation is in the county.
To Jones, in the health care world, “we are out in the middle of nowhere.”
“You probably can’t find a more rural hospital,” said Kevin Wagner, the director business development for McGough, the construction manager for the community’s new hospital project.
Now, this rural hospital will be building a new facility and revamping old space in a $19 million project.
Bennett County is bucking a national trend for rural hospitals.
From 2005 to 2023, 146 rural hospitals closed or stopped providing inpatient services in the U.S., according to the USDA.
The Bennett County Hospital weathered a financial challenge about 10 years ago, Jones said. But the facility is aging while there continues to be a demand for service.
The hospital’s emergency room serves an average of 230 patients each month, Anson said. The facility also provides several acute care beds as well as swing beds for patients. The facility also has physical therapy and lab service.
The hospital was built in 1958.
“Since it was built in 1958 there had been no major capital improvements,” Wagner said.
Shortcomings included patient room doors that are not wide enough for wheelchairs, and sometimes, walkers.
Anson said she worried that eventually, the facility could have inspection problems.
Faced with an 70-year-old aging facility that caused Anson and others to worry about its future, officials set out about 12 years ago to build a new hospital.
Now, after more than 10 years of planning and raising money, hospital representatives and officials who helped along the way, broke ground on Friday to symbolize the construction start of a $19 million project to replace the hospital. The project includes a new hospital with the ER. An existing wing will be revamped for expanded physical therapy and labs.
“There will be 14 beds,” Anson said. The rooms will be single patient rooms. “Every room will have a bathroom and shower,” she said.
“This is going to be so much safer for patients and staff,” Anson said.
Although Anson said the “staff is amazing,” it will be good to have a new, improved facility for them to work in.
The demolition of the south end of the existing facility is expected to start next week.
Some trends have hit the Bennett County Hospital campus. Since 2020, 774 nursing homes have closed in the U.S., according to two national health care organizations.
The Bennett County Hospital non profit organizationclosed its nursing home about in 2023. because of financial losses, Jones said.
“That was tough on the town,” Anson said.
The then CEO left in 2024. That prompted Anson to take the job as CEO. She had been a nurse for the organization and also the director of nursing.
“It’s vital we fight to keep this going,” Anson said of the hospital. “I couldn’t bear the thought of the hospital closing.”
The closure of the nursing home was one challenge for a new hospital.
“People were asking questions about how we would be able to build (a hospital),” Anson said.
Anson said the nursing home and hospital are separate health care services. Federal money secured for the hospital was specific to the hospital, she said.
The federal money was critical as a the project was early expected to be a roughly $14 million project but bids came in at much higher price, Anson said.
Anson said U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds and his staff were instrumental in helping to find money for the project.
The project will receive $13.6 million in a USDA loan, with help from Rounds and his staff.
The hospital raised nearly a $1 million locally and an anonymous donor contributed a $5 million gift. The state will contribute $2 million in a Community Block Development Grant. Anson said Rounds and his staff are working on another possible $2.5 million.
McGough also helped to reduce the cost of the facility.
Anson said items cut included new furniture including new hospital beds.
Wagner said the hospital was getting bids of around $24.5 million. After an unsatisfactory bidding process, the hospital board hired McGough to work on the budget. The budget was reduced to $19 million.
“That’s a significant cut,” Wagner said.
Jones said Rounds was key to the project but he credited Anson with carrying the project to construction.
“This woman just rocked it,” Jones said of Anson. “She never took no for an answer. If one door closed she knocked on another.”
“You have to turnover every single rock,” Anson said. “You can’t be afraid to hear the word ‘no.'”
Friday was a satisfying day for Anson, Jones and Wagner.
“Twelve years ago we started planning this,” Jones said. “It’s been a long ordeal and it’s finally coming to fruition.”
“This is huge for the community,” Wagner said. The community will have a hospital that will last for the next 50 to 100 years, he said.
