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Avera Partners in Ministry with South Dakota Urban Indian Health

Newsletter: Charity Care and Community Benefits — 2005

When she was sixteen years old, Juanita Beare left the Rosebud Indian Reservation where she was born and had spent the first part of her life. By relocating to an urban area, she lost access to the free health care provided by Indian Health Services on the reservations. Now living in Sioux Falls, Juanita receives care at a clinic operated by South Dakota Urban Indian Health, Inc. (SDUIH). Established in 1977, SDUIH operates three full-time primary healthcare clinics in Pierre, Aberdeen and Sioux Falls to provide care for Native Americans like Juanita.

Up until January of this year, women receiving care at the SDUIH clinic would have had to go elsewhere for prenatal care. But when Juanita’s pregnancy test came back positive, Karla Andrews, office manager for the clinic, was able to offer her the services of a midwife at the clinic through a new agreement with Avera McKennan Nurse Midwifery Clinic. Karla explains one of the benefits of the new service, “We have a lot of young moms here, and they are rather shy. They are more comfortable being able to continue with their care in familiar surroundings where they know the staff and feel at home.”

“Teresa VanderStouwe was my midwife,” relates Juanita. “I saw her from the beginning of my pregnancy and she made me feel real comfortable. We got to know each other pretty well.” However, when Juanita developed gestational diabetes, she was concerned that she would be referred to a different care provider. Not so. Teresa consulted regularly with a perinatologist to provide Juanita with the best care possible, while maintaining the relationship that Juanita valued so much.

When it came time for Juanita’s baby to be born, Teresa was there. Juanita especially enjoyed receiving care from a woman. “It just made me feel more at ease. I felt like she was my sister.” The delivery went very smoothly, and Juanita notes proudly, “They said I was their best patient.” Perhaps the most difficult part was naming the baby. “I had about 50 names picked out, but I just had to see her to know that she should be called ‘Jennifer.’”

South Dakota Urban Indian Health, Inc. (SDUIH) is Avera Health’s first Partner in Ministry under a new program started in April 2004. In keeping with Avera’s mission to make a positive impact in the lives and health of persons and communities, the Partners in Ministry Program links Avera resources with the needs of organizations that serve the medically underserved and economically disadvantaged. “What we do is provide support to an existing organization that has credibility, rather than establish competing services,” explains Richard Thompson, Ph.D., Avera senior vice president for corporate programs.

When asked what the new partnership means, Donna Keeler, executive director of SDUIH, stresses first the importance of the relationship to patients. “We are a non-profit facility, operating on limited funds. We are not an Indian Health Services facility. There is a general misunderstanding that we serve at a free cost to the patient. We struggle to make ends meet and to provide quality health care at the same time.” Keeler describes the partnership with Avera as “a quality linkage.” “For one of the largest medical networks in the region to partner with one of the smallest providers – for someone who has resources to share with someone who has less – that’s perfect,” she says. Keeler sees Avera not only extending a healing hand, but also trying to understand the Native American population, culture and needs. “They aren’t pushing us, but offering us what they have that we might be able to use.”

Through the partnership, Avera has provided grant writing services, helped SDUIH clinics obtain more equitable pricing for laboratory services and partially funded a program designed by SDUIH to reduce residential fire deaths and injuries through the “Circle of Teaching.” The program responds to one of the national Healthy People 2010 goals.

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