May 17, 2021

Karoliina Slack’s meeting calendar reveals a glimpse of the unique role she holds within Sanford Health.

At 9 a.m., the time is usually right to meet with the team in Ghana.

Midday generally works for Costa Rica.

Need to meet with colleagues in New Zealand? Slack generally is looking at 8 p.m., her time.

“It’s part of being in World Clinic,” she explains. “You have to adjust. That’s part of our world.”

Adjustment has been a theme in health care for the past year, including in Sanford Health’s World Clinic division, where Slack is the senior operations director.

“The way we experienced COVID (in the U.S.) was so severe, and we were on the leading edge so we were sharing it with our partners, how to deal with the influx in the ICU, and we were more of a leader and teacher,” said Jim Slack, vice president of Sanford World Clinic.

Sanford World Clinic now has 12 partners in 10 countries, representing 40 million people. There are 133 facilities, including 80 clinics and five hospitals.

The COVID-19 experienced in those countries varied dramatically, from Costa Rica, which opened for tourists only to be hit with a wave that left its ICU nearly full, to New Zealand, which counted just over two dozen deaths in the entire country.

“Every country’s experience is different,” said Mark Wills, CEO and managing director of OmniHealth, which is Sanford’s partner in the country.

“We’re very privileged to live in an environment where it’s relatively easy to lock down the border, and we did that quite soon to restrict the flow of COVID into the country.”

Overcoming barriers

Sanford World Clinic and New Zealand-based Omni Health Ltd. first opened a general practice clinic in Auckland in early 2018.

Since then, Sanford has helped lead the development of a $30 million network, making multiple investments and bringing small, independent clinics together and integrating them into Sanford World Clinic.

“It’s a very fragmented sector,” Wills said. “I found the company on the basis that there is an opportunity to improve the performance of primary care for the benefit of patients and the teams within it. If we add some sophistication in terms of management and scale and pursue things with innovation and explore opportunities to do things better … the purpose is to ensure there’s sustainable general practice primary care.”

That’s where the World Clinic team enters the equation.

From central Sioux Falls, “literally Karoliina acts as the COO of that system,” said Jim Slack, who is related by marriage to her. “And even though we’re in a COVID environment and can’t get there and work directly, these guys have found awesome synergy to work remote.”

The original idea had been to base someone from Sanford in New Zealand, but the team found it made more sense to shift in mid-2020 and manage it remotely.

“It has been a unique opportunity personally and for all parties involved,” Karoliina Slack said. “I would have never imagined having direct reports in New Zealand I only met once a year ago, but it’s really rewarding to see all the impact we can make. The way we think and the way Mark leads his organization, we’re family. Mark is part of the Sanford family. The values and mission and vision match.”

The team is identifying those in New Zealand prepared to go into leadership and is building an infrastructure for primary care that didn’t exist, Wills said.

“We spend our lives on video screens … but it’s been a fabulous relationship,” he said. “They bring a different perspective. It’s better to see what’s going on globally and … because it’s a scaled organization, you have leadership. We see huge value in driving that. This is deep and meaningful and it’s every day. It’s amazing how well it has worked.”

What’s next

By early fall, the plan is to have a local senior operations manager in place, transitioning Sanford leadership to more strategic involvement in New Zealand.

The country has about six groups of primary care providers such as Omni, but they make up only about 15 percent of the population, Wills said.

“So there’s still 85 percent of patients and practices that are still likely to want to transition,” he said.

“We are slowly identifying and attracting those that have leadership qualities and building an infrastructure for people in primary care that did not exist previously, and that’s the thing that really differentiates us from other networks in the country. They don’t have the Sanford factor to their advantage.”

As for Sanford’s World Clinic operation, its strategy is to “go deeper with our existing partners and provide more value,” Jim Slack said. “We’ve covered the globe pretty well.”

Scandinavia is “still of interest” as far as potential partnerships, but the next area of focus likely will be going deeper in Vietnam.

“It’s really what are their needs and what does that look like,” he said.

Sanford World Clinic also is building its research relationships in places such as Costa Rica and New Zealand.

“We feel we can bring (clinical) trials to New Zealand and help them set up how to run a clinical trials business,” Jim Slack said.

“It’s always fascinating to talk about the impacts we’re having.”