Now hiring: Avera on Louise
April 11, 2019
This paid piece is sponsored by Avera.
As construction crews work to open the new Avera on Louise health campus this fall, Avera leaders are getting ready to start staffing the first phases of the 84-acre site.
When the new medical center, Human Performance Center and Addiction Care Center open, some employees will transfer to the centers, but between 100 and 140 jobs also will be created.
“We are confident we will fill all the vacancies in the new facility, as well as any positions that are open on our main campus,” said Lynne Hagen, human resources officer with Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center. “We anticipate some migration of existing staff from Avera McKennan to the Avera on Louise location in addition to the new positions that this opportunity will create.”
Multiple services, one location
In addition to a surgical hospital and medical office building, Avera’s 69th and Louise health campus will be the home of the Avera Human Performance Center and the Avera Addiction Care Center. These additions will allow Avera McKennan’s main campus to repurpose space.
The campus will open this fall.
“This team has come together so well – they were very focused and disciplined with the scope and build-out of this project in which costs were kept in line while meeting our opening deadline,” said Dave Flicek, president and CEO of Avera McKennan. “The heart and soul of our facilities is our dedicated and caring staff.”
Some services now available at Avera McKennan will make the move in full, while others will move part of their team to the new campus.
“The quality and continuity of care will not change no matter where we see patients. Having a convenient southwest Sioux Falls location improves access,” said Chad Bare, assistant vice president of the Avera on Louise health campus. “Our teams, regardless of location, are coordinated in the services they provide, ensuring quality and consistency.”
Avera Orthopedics will have a large presence on the new campus, and all of the providers that make up Avera Medical Group Gastroenterology and Avera Medical Group Rheumatology will relocate to the new site.
“We’ll have a strong internal medicine service in place there as well,” Bare said. “We will likely add more providers as well as additional support staff.”
The new facility also will be home to Avera Medical Group Urogynecology.
New homes for several programs
A diverse group of multidisciplinary professionals will work at the new Avera Addiction Care Center, including chemical dependency counselors, nurses, behavioral health technicians as well as a chemical dependency counselor who will serve as a patient navigator. It will be a world-class residential addiction facility and employ about 35 new staff. Programming includes telemedicine support to patients during their first year of treatment after they depart.
Nearby, the Avera Human Performance Center will be the permanent home for a suite of orthopedics and performance programs that were spread across the city in the past.
“While we are consolidating some of our services, we’re also freeing a great deal of space to allow us the opportunity to hire more therapists at several sites that now are jampacked,” said Ann Heiman, assistant vice president of orthopedics, therapy and sports.
“The center will also serve as a permanent home for Avera Orthopedics Urgent Care, Avera’s sports medicine clinic and our sports programs, including the Kairos Elite Volleyball. We are excited about this development because we can offer so many diverse but interconnected services.”
With Sioux Falls’ unemployment rate of between 2 percent and 3 percent, finding the best fits for the new positions will require some diligent effort.
“Our name and reputation speaks for itself, but we must present competitive incentive packages,” Hagen said. “We will reach beyond Sioux Falls, naturally, and hope potential hires will be enthusiastic about the appeal of joining a growing organization, one that provides leading-edge care and great opportunities.”
