DAKOTA DUNES | South Dakota's largest health care system opened a cardiac and vascular medicine clinic in Dakota Dunes the first week in December.
Sanford Health Dakota Dunes Clinic, 350 Oak Tree Lane, provides heart and vascular consultation and testing. An electrophysiologist, cardiologist and two vascular physicians staff the clinic.
Deb Griffith, vice president of heart and vascular services, said requests from Siouxland patients who wanted to receive care closer to home led Sanford to open the clinic. Sanford Health's nearest facilities are a clinic and Sanford Vermillion Medical Center in Vermillion, South Dakota.
"It got to be enough requests that we decided to explore it," she said. "It appears as though patients that were requesting it are happy that we've come because we've had many of them see us already down there in just a month's time."
Griffith said Siouxland family physicians are also referring new patients to Sanford Health Dakota Dunes Clinic.
The clinic, which is located in a building leased by Sanford, is right off Interstate 29 and easily accessible for patients. Inside the clinic, Griffith said providers use ultrasound and echocardiography technology and perform minimally invasive procedures and stress tests.
This is the Sioux Falls-based group's first entry into metro Sioux City. In Iowa, Sanford Health has three medical centers, 11 clinics and six senior living facilities.
Sanford is South Dakota's largest health care system and one of the largest in the nation, with 43 hospitals and nearly 250 clinics in nine states and three countries.
The system, which has received nearly $1 billion in gifts from philanthropist Denny Sanford, employs 27,000 employees, including 1,400 physicians, making it the largest employer in the Dakotas.
