Sioux Falls now houses the southern hub of the largest rural non-profit healthcare organization in the country. 

On Monday, Nov. 2, Sioux Falls’ Sanford Health and Fargo’s MeritCare healthcare systems finalized their merger.  After North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem declared the move legally “in MeritCare’s best interest,” MeritCare’s board of directors voted to make the merger reality.  The new corporation, Sanford Health MeritCare, covers almost 100,000 miles, most of them rural.

Mark Johnston, Sanford Health Vice President of Administration, said that the merger will provide more opportunities for local medical specialty education in the Dakotas.  Before the merger, Sanford was partnered with USD in the Sanford-USD Medical Center and MeritCare fostered a relationship with UND.   While those relationships will only continue to grow within the merger, the combined Sanford-MeritCare corporation may offer educational opportunities that either health care system could not alone.

“Before the merger,” Johnston said, “there were limits to what Sanford could offer.  For instance, UND offers a medical residency specializing in surgery that Sanford does not.  Together, we may be able to combine our educational opportunities. Together, we will be able to offer increased opportunities for young men and women to get into the medical field in South Dakota once they complete their education. Sanford will be more secure fiscally and will provide, as always, a healthy organization to work with and within.”

Darren Huber, MeritCare Media Relations Coordinator, explained that through the merger, Sanford MeritCare expects not  only to employ more people who graduate medical school in South Dakota, but also to draw specialist from out-of-state, so that local patients who require specialized care—like advanced cancer treatment or rare transplants—may not have to travel out of state to receive the care they need.

“We’re expanding, not just combining,” Johnston said.

One example of the corporation’s expansion can be found a bus system between Fargo and Sioux Falls that began its route on Nov. 2  The system moves between the two health systems at 7:15 AM and 3:30 PM in both cities.

“We’d rather move administrators, leadership and physicians than patients,” said Johnston.  “People usually use the system infrequently, but I know people who have been on the bus every day.”

The new corporation is led by Kelby Krabbenhoft, president of the former Sanford Health.  The past president of MeritCare, Dr. Roger Gilbertson, is retiring but will remain an emeritus figure in the merged corporation.  Also, the separate systems in Fargo and Sioux Falls have maintained much of their pervious separate leadership.

Medical history

Sanford and MeritCare draw on similar origins: they both were founded by a physician and grew into community health care systems with roots in the Lutheran church.   The main difference between the two is Sanford’s history of expansion through hospitals and MeritCare’s through clinics.  Currently, the Sanford system houses 24 hospitals (although many of those are rural hospitals with 25 beds or less) while MeritCare has three hospitals.  MeritCare’s system, however, includes 49 clinics.

Huber reported that MeritCare is currently testing the concept of a hub, a rural medical center that offers services somewhere between those of a clinic and a hospital.

Hubs offer some services regular rural clinics cannot, like same-day surgery options and some specialty services.  While Huber isn’t sure Sanford Health MeritCare will continue the hub system, he does know that the organization is committed to providing quality health care to a largely rural population.

Our goal is that eventually, everyone within the Sanford Health MeritCare system will reside no more that 45 minutes from one of our medical facilities,” said Johnston.  “Already, we’re close to doing that.”