While the sustainability of rural healthcare is at a crossroads nationwide, one county in the remote southwest portion of South Dakota has secured funding to expand.
The town of Martin in Bennett County has a population of under 1,000. Not counting the clinic in Pine Ridge, the nearest full-service hospitals are over an hour and a half away in each direction – one in Philip and the other in Winner.
The new space, which broke ground Friday, will offer improved services for the community and the vast rural area of Bennett County. The development includes new emergency service bays, acute care, and modernization of old equipment. It comes with a $19-million price tag.
That money was secured through both fundraising efforts and federal support.
Republican gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson attended the event. He said rural hospitals like these allow him and his family to live in the small towns they choose.
"Our rural communities are only going to be as healthy long-term as rural healthcare is healthy," Johnson said. "People are just not going to move to places where they can’t access quality providers and quality facilities. That doesn’t mean every town is going to have a hospital. We have to be concerned anytime we feel our rural healthcare is not able to meet the demands of our rural communities.”
Also in attendance for the groundbreaking was U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds.
“They have worked as a community to get it done," Rounds said. "We’ve tried to participate with them and be part of that team, and we’ve been successful in moving it out of the Senate a couple of times for about $2.6 million to help them on their hospital project.”
With this investment, Bennett County has bucked the national trend. This upgrade comes at a time many rural hospitals have closed across America.