# Sanford Health

Sanford Health is a nonprofit, integrated health care delivery system headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with additional offices in Fargo and Bismarck, North Dakota, and Bemidji, Minnesota.

## History

Sanford Health has its roots in the Dakotas at the beginning of the 20th century, with Sioux Falls Hospital opening in Sioux Falls in 1894 and St. Luke's Hospital opening in Fargo in 1908. Over the next 80 years, both hospitals grew in size and influence, becoming integrated hospital-clinic systems known as Sioux Valley Health System and MeritCare Health System. The Sioux Valley Health System was renamed Sanford Health in 2007 after T. Denny Sanford's $400 million gift to the organization. On November 2, 2009, Sanford took over MeritCare. Additional mergers with North Country Regional Health in Bemidji, Minnesota, and Medcenter One Health Systems followed in 2011 and 2012.

### MeritCare History

Originally founded in 1905 as the Lutheran Hospital Association, in February 1908 the association opened the St Lukes Hospital along with the St. Luke's School of Nursing, led by Sister Osa Oppedahl of the Deaconesses from the Norwegian Lutheran Church of Chicago.
In 1909, the hospital had its first expansion planned, which was completed in 1918 doubling the size of St. Lukes Hospital.
In April 1919, the hospitals board approved the opening of a small specialty clinic where doctors worked in a team setting in a similar fashion to the Mayo Clinic. In 1921, the Fargo Clinic opened. In 1922, St Lukes Hospital achieved accreddidation from The American College of Surgeons and in 1925 the hospital established its emergency room.
In 1949, the Lutheran Hospital Association was renamed the St. Lukes Hospital Association.
In 1985, St. Lukes hospital, its subsidiaries, and the clinic all add MeritCare to their names. and would fully merge their entities together in 1993 becoming the Meritcare Health System that would merge with Sanford

### Medcenter One Health Systems

Medcenter One Health Systems was a nonprofit American health care provider headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. Medcenter One offered nine clinics, three long-term care facilities, and multiple hospital affiliations. It was designated as a Level II trauma center. It was bought and merged into Sanford Health in 2012.

### The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society

In 2017, talks began to form an affiliation agreement between Sanford and the Good Samaritan Society. After discussions and the formation of synergy teams that strategized how the organizations could combine, final votes were taken by both parties to the agreement. On April 26, 2018, the Society Board of Directors voted that the Society Membership consider approving the affiliation agreement. On June 21, the Sanford Board of Trustees voted to approve the affiliation agreement. On June 26, the Society Membership voted to approve the affiliation agreement. A press conference was held later that day, during which Sanford Health President and CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft and Society President and CEO David Horazdovsky signed the affiliation agreement. It was announced that the affiliation would go into regulatory review with an expected approval date of January 1, 2019. If approved, The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society would change its name to The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society of Sanford Health. Sanford Health would retain its name. The affiliation agreement met the regulatory review requirements earlier than expected, with an announcement on August 17, 2018. The merger was completed on January 1, 2019.

### Failed Intermountain Healthcare Merger

In October 2020, Intermountain Healthcare and Sanford Health signed an intent to merge. The merger would make Sanford Health a subsidiary of Intermountain Healthcare with the resulting system consisting of 70 hospitals with 89,000 employees. In early December, the merger was postponed indefinitely after Bill Gassen abruptly replaced Sanford Health CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft after he made anti-mask statements.

### COVID-19 and Sanford CEO Krabbenhoft

In November 2020, Krabbenhoft said he would not wear a face mask despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as he claimed he already had the disease. His statement drew criticism and was seen by many as a slap in the face to frontline healthcare workers. Krabbenhoft also said the pandemic was not a crisis during which South Dakota's hospitalizations related to the disease were at all-time highs. On November 24, 2020, the board announced that Krabbenhoft would leave the organization to be replaced by Bill Gassen.

### Failed Fairview Health Merger Attempts

In the fall of 2012, Sanford Health announced it had entered discussions with Minnesota-based Fairview Health, the University of Minnesota Medical School's joint clinical venture partner since 1997. University of Minnesota officials, state lawmakers and Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson strongly opposed the proposed merger between Fairview Health Services and South Dakota-based Sanford Health, citing concerns over ceding control of a key Minnesota healthcare institution to an out-of-state entity. In April 2013, Sanford CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft conceded merger discussions would be indefinitely postponed.
In November 2022, Sanford Chief Executive James Hereford announced a revived merger attempt, with both parties signing a non-binding letter of intent to combine under a single parent company to be named "Sanford Health". The proposed merger called for each company to maintain their own non-profit status and regional brands in their respective markets.
As was the case 10 years prior, concerns over ceding control of a major Minnesota healthcare institution to an out-of-state entity provoked intense opposition from University of Minnesota officials, union leaders, state lawmakers and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Former Minnesota Governors Mark Dayton (Democrat) and Tim Pawlenty (Republican) were influential in consolidating political opposition to the merger, emphasizing the merits of maintaining Minnesotan control of the University of Minnesota's Medical School and Teaching Hospital.
On July 27, 2023, the two healthcare systems announced they were abandoning merger discussions, citing a lack of stakeholder support.

## Centers of Excellence

Sanford Health has five "centers of excellence": cancer, children's, heart, orthopedics/sports medicine, and women's health.

### Children's hospital

Sanford Children's Hospital is a freestanding acute care children's hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It is affiliated with the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. The hospital features all private rooms that consist of 118 pediatric beds. It provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region. The hospital has a rooftop helipad and is an ACS verified level II pediatric trauma center, the only one in the state. It features a regional pediatric intensive-care unit and an American Academy of Pediatrics verified level III neonatal intensive care unit.

## World Clinics

The Sanford World Clinic initiative, which focuses primarily on international pediatric healthcare, began in 2007. Sanford Children's Clinic Duncan in Oklahoma became the first World Clinic that year.
As of 2017, Sanford operated clinics in China, Ghana, Germany, and Canada.
In January 2018, it was announced that Sanford would establish World Clinics in Costa Rica, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Vietnam and expand its presence in China and Ghana.

## Facilities
### Sports facilities

The Sanford Fieldhouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, houses 85,000 square feet of indoor sports fields. There are also batting cages, indoor tracks, and other workout equipment. The Sanford Pentagon, also in Sioux Falls, houses nine basketball courts. Both these buildings were designed with sustainability and building efficiency in mind. Sanford Health worked with JLG Architects on them.

### Trauma centers

Sanford Health has many emergency trauma centers across the Midwest. In Sioux Falls, the Sanford USD Medical Center is a board-certified Level II Trauma Center, along with a Level II Pediatric Trauma center. Sanford also has Level II centers in North Dakota and Aberdeen, South Dakota.
In April 2018, Sanford Health's Fargo medical center was designated as a Level I Adult Trauma Center, the only Level I facility between Minneapolis, Seattle, Omaha, and Denver, and the only one in the Dakotas.

## Sponsorships

Sanford is a major sponsor of the Summit League, an NCAA Division I athletic conference whose membership now includes all of the four largest universities in the Dakotas plus one in Nebraska. At the company's invitation, the conference moved its headquarters in 2018 to a Sanford-owned office complex in Sioux Falls. Also in that year, regional media reported that Sanford-tied boosters of Augustana University, also located in Sioux Falls, were making a serious attempt to move the school's athletic program from NCAA Division II to the Summit League.
The company also sponsors Sanford MMA (now Kill Cliff FC) as a secondary sponsor.