Nov. 20, 2023

It says a lot about the activity on the campus of Sanford USD Medical Center that the annual holiday tree lighting for the Christmas at the Castle event will be replaced this year by a construction crane covered in lights.

In part, that’s an accurate reflection of what has been going on across the central Sioux Falls campus.

It’s also a necessity because there’s a more permanent pine tree coming for future lightings at the Billion Pavilion — which is winding down its own construction.

“Activity is high,” said Kris Denevan, Sanford Health executive director of facilities and support services. “It’s really busy. We’ve got our contractors on-site … and some don’t leave campus because we’re so busy, and they’ve been continually here for decades. They’re part of our team.”

The Billion Pavilion will be the first of several large construction projects to achieve substantial completion.

Supported by a lead $1 million gift from David H. and Christine Billion, the park will include a covered picnic shelter for patients who cannot be in the sun and unique equipment such as a caterpillar climber, spring rider, patterned path routes, an Oodle Swing and sound arch.

Some of the play equipment will arrive in the spring, but most of the pavilion will be ready by Christmas at the Castle on Nov. 28.

There’s also a shelter and walking path, so it’s possible to venture out all year.

“It’s part of the care aspect,” Sanford Sioux Falls president Paul Hanson said. “You’re thinking about physically, mentally, emotionally, being able to take family members out to do things they haven’t done before in the hospital in a different environment. That’s a different healing.”

The Billion Pavilion also includes physical therapy steps and ramps for patients to do their physical therapy outside, planting gardens, workbenches, flower beds and garden benches with wheelchair space and decorative seating.

Sanford also plans to partner with the nonprofit Ground Works on programming for the pavilion and developed angled garden beds for wheelchair accessibility.

“Some kids have never gotten to dig in the dirt before,” said Andy Munce, vice president of operations at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls. “It’s next-level functional because our therapy teams are planning to utilize the play equipment. So it’s real-world examples of things they would be exposed to outside the castle.”

Kids staying at the castle have been watching the progress through their hospital windows and recently have enjoyed spotting a cutout kangaroo that construction crews from Henry Carlson Co. have moved around daily for their entertainment.

“The kids and families love watching it, and the workers reciprocate it and enjoy hearing from the kids and families,” Denevan said.

Inside the main lobby, a smaller project significant in its own way is getting started. A Starbucks coffee shop — a licensed location for Hegg Cos. — is opening in the spring, including seating and delivery service around campus.

“Staff was very excited,” Denevan said. “You see many staff walking in the door with Starbucks in their hand, so it will be very nice for them and for our guests.”

The first major building project to be completed on the campus will be the new Medical Building 1, which broke ground in early 2022 and is scheduled to see its first patient July 15, 2024.

The five-story building includes 400 parking spaces on four levels, with a 45,000-square-foot Sanford Digestive Clinic on the top floor. The parking will serve the busy south side of the campus, and multiple buildings are connected underground to the ramp.

The building can accommodate 31 gastrointestinal physicians — five were hired in the past year to meet demand — and Sanford’s new GI fellowship will start in 2025. The GI team will add four providers who will join the practice next summer.

The new building “clearly has been a nice complement and ability for us to continue to grow that team, especially with some of the guidelines that have changed for when folks are eligible for GI screening,” Munce said. “It’s been challenging to fit in the patient volume, and this last year we’ve been very successful with GI recruitment.”

The building also can expand for three levels on top to accommodate additional medical specialties.

“We’re already looking at that potential for that and what we can do,” Hanson said. “We like to keep a lot of services on main campus for a lot of different reasons — patient safety and certainly the financial considerations associated with having everything on one campus being more efficient. It’s what we’ve done in the past and what we’ll continue to do in the future.”

Orthopedic Hospital taking shape

Steel is rising for what will become the tallest building on Sanford’s campus when the Sanford Orthopedic Hospital sees its first patient in the summer of 2025.

Rising 137 feet, the nine-story addition to the existing surgical tower is scheduled to have decks poured and steel set by the end of this year.

The building includes 44,000 square feet of remodeled space on the lower levels and 161,000 square feet of new space. There will be a two-story guest lobby with food service, along with 19 in-patient rooms.

“By the net gain of operating rooms, we can expand our other surgical services, so it plays into our entire recruitment plan,” Munce said. “And we’re larger than we’ve ever been from an orthopedic perspective. We have a total of 60 ortho providers on campus.”

The building also will include 56 medical hotel suites designed for patients or families. Sanford is leaning toward working with an independent operator instead of a national hotel brand, Hanson said.

The building also will offer a breakfast service for guests and include a fitness center.

Looking ahead, Sanford likely is far from done building.

“We’re not quite there yet,” Hanson said. “We need to address women’s, so there will be a discussion about that in the future. We’ve had a lot of discussion about putting (parking) ramps in. More than 50 percent of our land mass is covered by parking … and we have to look at that in the future.”

That planning includes looking for more opportunities for green space, such as the Billion Pavilion and landscaping being planned at Medical Building 1.

For now, though, the cranes will be part of the landscape for months to come.

Along the way have been memorable moments for reasons far beyond construction milestones. One day, a young patient at Sanford Children’s became an organ donor, and a ceremonial flag was raised.

“What we didn’t anticipate was all the construction workers stopped and bowed their heads to pay respects to the family, to honor this little one’s life and to honor the parents,” Denevan said. “There are so many unexpected things that have happened that have been really touching.”