New Oyate Health Center In Rapid City Officially Opening To Patients

       The clinic facilities at the new Oyate Health Center in Rapid City, the successor to the Sioux San Hospital, officially open to patients on Monday. 

      The Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board runs the clinic for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

      Board President and CEO Jerilyn Church says it’s a phased start up with primary care and ancillary services beginning first and radiation a little later.

     The new building puts all the services under one roof. Previously, the business office, diabetes program, and dental services in different buildings across the Sioux San campus.

     Church says creating a place that patients recognize, feel safe in, and receive care as if they were a relative is the primary goal of the Oyate Health Center.

      Sioux San Hospital was built on the grounds of the old Rapid City Indian Boarding School in 1938 to treat Native American patients suffering from tuberculosis. 

    While the Tribal Leaders Health Board runs the new facility, the older buildings and the grounds still belong to the Indian Health Service. The agency’s current plans call for demolishing the old hospital.