SDAHO Hometown Healthcare Hero: Brookings Health System

Video Transcript

Sara Marroquin, General Surgeon: I think one of the best parts about healthcare in South Dakota is that it's a pretty small community, especially in the surgery world. I also feel like it's a pretty close-knit community in regards to, like, the patients as well as the providers, and you don't find that everywhere.

Sara Marroquin, MD, General Surgeon, is originally from Oregon.

Why Brookings, South Dakota?

I got to Brookings because I did all of my surgical training in Sioux Falls, and then my husband is South Dakotan, and so now I have children and family, and so I decided to stay close to his family. So, you know, doing all my surgical training here, I know pretty much most of the surgeons in Sioux Falls. So, if I need help or have questions, I have a lot of resources.

Jaclyn Rauen Inpatient Care & Case Management Director: So one of the best things about coming to Brookings Health System and working here is you really do feel that sense of community. You're in a small enough hospital where you know your coworkers, you know your neighbors that become patients, and you get to take care of that community, and that's what I love about Brookings Health System. We have a 49-bed hospital, we also have a 79-bed skilled nursing facility. We have a congregate living facility. We have several rural clinics, three rural clinics in the area, and also an eye clinic.

The OB Unit was recently expanded to provide patients and families 5 labor & delivery suites, triage and flex rooms and 10 OB beds.

Michelle Sand, Obstetrics Director: We are a baby-friendly hospital. We provide additional resources, breastfeeding resources and education for our moms. We have a baby cafe that is able to provide support for moms after they go home. We also provide other opportunities and support for moms through our doula program, and we are one of the only baby-friendly hospitals in the state.

Sara: I was very impressed coming here with all the new technology we have, and just how nice and clean everything is. Robotic surgery essentially is going to be the new standard of care. And we have the most up-to-date robot, which I think is extremely beneficial, because there's a lot of different specialties that can use the robot. But I think for a small community, I do think that we do have a lot of access to things that, I think, other towns this size don't have, such as the da Vinci robot or the Mako robot.

Jaclyn: So, for the past five out of six years, Brookings Health System has gotten the top 20 rural community hospitals in the United States. That's a pretty significant award, and it really speaks to our team's ability to provide quality care. It's based on several different pillars, including in those pillars our quality pillars and patient satisfaction pillars.

Michelle Sand, RN and Jaclyn Rauen, RN are both South Dakota natives and graduates from the South Dakota State University nursing program.

Jaclyn: So we're lucky and fortunate enough to have South Dakota State University next to us, which brings in a lot of new grads, new ideas right from the college right next door. We also have those people who have been at Brookings Health System for a long time wanting to raise their family and have worked here for a long time. So we have this good and unique group of new grads and veterans that have worked here for a long time.

Michelle: I feel like the community of Brookings is big enough to provide that specialty care to our patients, but small enough to have that hometown rural feel.

Tim Reed, CEO of Brookings Economic Development Corporation: I was born in the Brookings Hospital here in Brookings, and I've lived all my life here also attending SDSU. I think one of the biggest things I've appreciated, and it's what kept me here, we decided that we wanted to raise our family here, because we have an excellent school system. The school system's always been supported by this community.

Tim Reed wears many hats representing the Brookings community: CEO, Brookings Economic Development Corporation, South Dakota State Lawmaker and Former Mayor of Brookings, SD.

I really appreciate that our local hospital participates in a lot of community activities. If you're gonna go see a soccer game, you'll see that they're a supporter of the soccer program, and you're finding community members really wanna be active. They appreciate having such a great healthcare hospital and other healthcare amenities right here directly in Brookings that they don't have to travel for.

Michelle: My favorite thing about working here is being able to make a difference. When moms and families are giving birth, it's a very vulnerable and exciting time, and I can really make that difference in providing them the best care and best experience possible.

Jaclyn: Brookings offers a wide range of opportunity, not only on the professional side, but also just an opportunity to raise my family here in Brookings. It's small enough where you feel safe and comfortable and part of the community, but also big enough to offer the opportunities.

Ready to learn more about what Brookings, SD has to offer?

When we're not working, we like to enjoy the activities that Brookings has to offer. So, that may be a Jacks game on a Saturday at SDSU, it might be going to the Children's Museum with my kids.

Tim: We're really known for being a small community with a lot of bigger city amenities, and with that you have great arts. If you like athletic events, you know, we've got the Jackrabbits here and their Division 1 program. I think trailing spouses have a lot of opportunity here in Brookings. A lot of it has to do with the university. There's just a lot of different types of jobs, you know, that you can do, whether you're in education or maybe student services, or in research also. A lot of companies around here need technical workforce. They need people that can do lab work and such.

I think we have a really good cost of living here in Brookings. A lot of times you'll find that our gas is a little cheaper, our groceries are a little bit cheaper, and so, people find that it's a very reasonable place to live. And we did a housing study, and that housing study says that we need to do 170 units per year over the next 10 years. And what I'm happy to report is last year we did 271 units, and so we're working really hard to make sure that there's housing available for people that wanna move to Brookings.

Ready to learn about job opportunities with Brookings Health System?

Jaclyn: Brookings Health System offers a variety of job opportunities, anywhere from environmental services, food services, laboratory, therapy departments such as respiratory therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, and even providers and hospitalists.

Additional job opportunities include: Housekeeping, Orthopedic Surgeon, Urologist, Dermatologist

Benefits: Some include paid time off (PTO), health insurance, flexible reimbursement plan, public loan forgiveness program, dental insurance, vision insurance, South Dakota retirement system plan, life insurance, short-term disability, gym membership/reimbursement, on-site fitness center, on-call compensation, employee discount on services.

Michelle: All of our team members here do feel like family. We've got staff members that have been here for 30-plus years, all the way down to new staff members that gives us the opportunity to provide the best care to our patients.

Jaclyn: You come to work and you take care of your neighbors with your family. It's one big family that offers this kind of healthcare, and I think that speaks to the quality of care, the patient satisfaction scores that we have, is we really do try to just serve our community in the best way possible.

Sara: I think it's also been really rewarding just to be able to kind of grow as a provider in this community where you're very supported. So, having the support so I feel comfortable and growing and building a practice has been very rewarding.

Ready to become part of the Brookings community and build your career with Brookings Health System? Apply today at brookingshealth.org/jobs.