Rapid City will get the region’s first long-term acute care hospital. Monument Health begins construction on the new hospital this fall.
The venture is a partnership between Monument Health and Vibra Healthcare. Vibra operates several long-term acute care and rehabilitation facilities across the U.S.
Mark Longacre is Vice President of Operations for Monument Health in Rapid City. He says long-term acute care facilities serve patients with a variety of conditions. They include respiratory and infectious diseases, neurological disorders, and even cardiac conditions. The patients require ongoing care but not what’s offered at an ICU.
Longacre says patients in the region have had to travel up to 500 miles for long-term acute care.
“And typically, they’re having to leave the region for 3, 4, even 5 weeks at a time. And so, it puts a tremendous burden on their family members to have them leave the community, have to be able to travel and support and provide some assistance for their loved ones.”
The new 55-thousand square foot facility will also house Monument’s acute rehabilitation services. Longacre says the new hospital will more than double the number of rehab beds. He says patients who need acute rehabilitation have often had a stroke, brain injury or spinal cord injury.
Longacre says the new rehab unit will have a specialized kitchen for patients to practice meal preparation. It will also have transition rooms for family members to stay and learn how to take care of patients.
Monument Health says the Rehabilitation and Critical Care Hospital of the Black Hills is planned to open in the Spring of 2023.