SD’s Community Health Centers Put Stimulus Dollars to Good Use
ISABEL, S.D. - Community Health Care Centers across the state have seen their patient numbers rise as the economy has remained stagnant, and federal stimulus dollars have been directed to many of them to help handle the load.
Prairie Community Health, based in Isabel, serves almost 10,000 square miles of rural South Dakota. CEO Pam Locken says the money is allowing them to add more full-time professional help, which means jobs for the area.
"The stimulus money will give us the money to hire an additional PA or nurse practitioner that will help us cover when our providers are on vacation, and kind-of float 'em around. We have seven sites, so it's hard to keep them all up and running if you've got three people that need a vacation."
Locken says her group has received just over $600,000 from the stimulus program. Part of the money will allow them to move to an electronic record-keeping program, which will give providers faster access to more of every patient's medical information.
"When they get into the room, they can then pull up their medical record and they can see that they're allergic to penicillin, or that they haven't had their tetanus shot. It'll have the reminders." Locken says the updated record-keeping will include a component called Medi-Tab, to help tie together a patient's records with their health status, which she says should lead to better outcomes.
Prairie Community Health also has sites in Bison, Eagle Butte, Faith, Howes Corner, LaPlant and McIntosh.