Avera Integrated Service Center is Now Open

The new Avera Integrated Service Center in Foundation Park in north Sioux Falls is open and operating. The building encloses 330,000 square feet on one level - equivalent to six football fields - and brings together numerous Avera departments that have similar functions or operate in similar ways.

"Central distribution is a growing trend among health systems, and one that several of our peer organizations are using successfully. Avera leaders visited several sites and improved upon ideas for Avera's unique needs," said Sara Henderson, Avera Vice President of Supply Chain.

This innovative project allows Avera to gain efficiencies. Taking full advantage of technology and automation will help to increase capacity as Avera adds hospital beds, particularly through its major construction projects now taking place in Sioux Falls.

Numerous Avera services will operate from this center including:

• Centralized Pharmacy Services
• Supply Chain, serving as central distribution for medical supplies for Avera hospitals, clinics and long-term care centers
• Print Shop
• Biomedical Engineering, the department that maintains medical capital equipment, including patient monitors, beds and diagnostic technology
• Home Medical Equipment distribution center
• Courier operations

In the pharmacy realm, operations for retail, hospital, home infusion, long-term care, compounding and specialty pharmacy are now brought together from several separate sites. The additional space also will allow for Avera to procure bulk, cost-reduced pharmaceuticals, as well as anticipatory purchasing of products experiencing national shortages in an effort to meet the needs of Avera hospitals and clinics. The new space will incorporate enhanced automation such as conveyor belts and dispensing robots, which will augment the activities of highly trained staff.

Avera Pharmacy Services offer a wide array of direct patient services. "The centralization of pharmacy operations and enhanced automation will create an efficient process to deliver prescription medications to patients directly to their homes or their long-term care place of residence," said Melissa Goff, Avera Vice President for Pharmacy. "Patients are at the center of what we do. By streamlining medication distribution tasks, this will allow more time for our pharmacists to focus on direct patient care and optimizing therapy outcomes."

Supply Chain now has more room for storage, enabling Avera to keep plenty of stock on hand as well as safety stock of critical items, with processes in place to manage distribution.

Avera Home Medical Equipment uses the center to house store inventory plus patient-ready home medical equipment that's delivered directly to the patient.

"With all of these comprehensive services housed under one roof, Avera is uniquely positioned to streamline and enhance delivery logistics across the entire health system," Henderson said. "This integrated approach allows for improved communication, centralized scheduling and real-time coordination among teams."

As a result, deliveries-whether they involve medical supplies, durable equipment or critical pharmaceuticals-are better timed and more efficient. This not only reduces the total number of miles traveled by delivery vehicles, but also ensures that patients and health care facilities receive the right items exactly when they are needed. Ultimately, this level of coordination supports timely treatment, minimizes disruptions in care, and promotes a more responsive and patient-centered health care experience.

Eighteen bays accommodate trucks and vans delivering supplies and bulk pharmaceuticals, and then taking right-sized quantities to Avera locations in 100 communities, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and more.

Brookwood Capital Advisors owns the building and leases it to Avera and Owens & Minor, a distributor of essential medical/surgical supplies.