Avera Opens Pavilion 2, New Home of Digestive Health
Avera has opened Pavilion 2, a new medical office building at the Avera on Louise Health Campus in Sioux Falls. The three-story Pavilion 2 is home to the Avera Digestive Health Center and the specialty of gastroenterology. A community open house will be 11:30 – 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11.
The 127,000-square-foot pavilion at Avera on Louise, together with a six-story expansion for women’s and children’s services at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center, represent the largest building project in Avera history with 350,000 square feet of new patient care space.
In Pavilion 2, the ground floor is dedicated to gastrointestinal (GI) procedures, including eight general procedure rooms and two suites for specialized procedures, for example, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). Space allows for the future growth. There are over 40 pre-/post-procedure rooms on ground floor, with capacity to expand. Patient registration for both procedures and clinic visits will take place on ground floor.
This added space will allow Avera to increase GI procedures by 100%.
The second floor will house space for the Avera Gastroenterology clinic with capacity for additional growth similar to the first floor.
The lower level is attached to an underground tunnel between Avera Specialty Hospital and Pavilion 2. The lower level houses dedicated space for sterile processing.
Avera will refit former GI space in the Avera Specialty Hospital for the in-demand specialty of orthopedics, meaning that a greater portion of the specialty hospital will be dedicated to orthopedic clinic visits and surgical procedures.
“This is an exciting expansion on our Avera on Louise Health Campus. When we began developing this campus in 2017, our vision was to offer greater and easier access to convenient, high-end health services like orthopedics, gastroenterology and more. This campus has proven to be a destination for specialty health care services,” said Ron Place, MD, Regional President and CEO of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center.
Factors driving growth in demand for GI services include a growing population, an aging population, and recommendations to begin colonoscopy screenings at age 45 instead of age 50.
“People today are more in tune with their own health. Rather than just live with troubling symptoms, they seek out specialty care, and Avera is pleased to have growing capacity to serve these needs through the Avera Digestive Health Center,” said Christopher Hurley, MD, Avera gastroenterologist in Sioux Falls.
