Today, Avera broke ground on a new medical office building at the Avera on Louise Health Campus in Sioux Falls to house digestive health services and other specialties as needed.
The 127,000 square foot building will be constructed just south of the Avera Specialty Hospital and is a key aspect of a two-part building project recently announced by Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center.
This new Avera on Louise building, combined with a six-story addition to Avera McKennan on the main campus, will be the largest building project in Avera history at a total cost of approximately $245 million. It will also be the largest expansion of hospital patient care space in Sioux Falls history at almost 350,000 square feet.
“For the Avera on Louise campus, this project will be a major expansion for two key service lines: gastroenterology and orthopedics,” said Ronald Place, MD, Regional President and CEO for Avera McKennan. “Both of these service lines are growing, due to Sioux Falls’ population growth and the aging of the baby boomer and Generation X populations. As Sioux Falls grows, Avera McKennan must grow with it to care for the people of our growing region.”
When gastroenterology services move into the new medical office building, it will create more room for orthopedic services at the Avera Specialty Hospital.
The new three-story building’s design will support up to three additional floors, if needed, with the possibility of building a skywalk between the two buildings. For now, there will be an underground tunnel hallway for staff and transporting patients.
The building footprint will be on what’s currently a parking lot. Last summer, Avera added more parking to the east to support this building and the specialty hospital.
Within the new building, around 90,000 square feet will be dedicated to digestive health, compared to 45,000 square feet in the specialty hospital.
The ground floor will house gastroenterology procedures, including 12 procedure rooms and 50 pre- and post-operative rooms for colonoscopy, endoscopy and other procedures. The second floor will house the gastroenterology clinic, with room to add more gastroenterologists.
Along with population growth, one reason for increasing demand for the specialty of gastroenterology is the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation in 2021 to lower the age to begin screening colonoscopies to 45.
“This good decision was based on a trend of cancer occurring at younger ages. Colorectal cancer is very treatable when discovered in its earliest stages, and it’s even preventable if we can find and remove precancerous polyps before they develop into cancer,” said Christopher Hurley, MD, Avera Medical Group gastroenterologist. “Thanks to increasing numbers of people being screened and better treatments, the rate of deaths due to colorectal cancer is decreasing.”
The third floor will be shell space for future growth. The lower level will house sterile processing equipment, staff locker rooms, storage and IT offices.
This will be the fourth building project at the Avera on Louise Health Campus, including the Avera Specialty Hospital and attached Avera Medical Group building, Avera Addiction Care Center and Avera Human Performance Center. “After this project is completed in early 2026, we will have developed about half of the 80 acres at Avera on Louise. Our vision for this campus is a modern, convenient and accessible destination for health care services,” Place said.
Citywide, these combined projects will create what Avera McKennan has needed for some time ― more room. At the main Avera McKennan campus, the six-story tower will create a new main entrance for Avera McKennan, as well as a focused area for women’s and children’s hospital services. Areas vacated will be remodeled to add more capacity for surgery, medical/surgical beds and more. Adding a total of 158 beds, the entire project will accommodate current and future growth of Sioux Falls and increased demand for medical services.
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