Testimonials - Progress Lives Here

This video highlights community perspectives on healthcare progress through Brookings Health’s expansion and renovation project. Local residents share how continued investment in facilities and services strengthens access to high-quality care close to home. The video exists to show how healthcare progress supports community growth, improves access to services, and ensures long-term sustainability for local patients.

  • Healthcare expansion supports community growth: Investments in facilities help ensure long-term access to quality care close to home.
  • Local hospitals remain essential: Community members value having advanced healthcare available without traveling to larger cities.
  • Responsible growth builds trust: Thoughtful, fiscally responsible expansion strengthens confidence in the healthcare system.
  • Modern facilities improve patient access: Renovations and upgrades help keep local healthcare competitive and accessible.
  • Community pride drives progress: Residents see healthcare improvements as a key part of making Brookings a strong and attractive place to live and work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Healthcare progress and expansion refer to investments in new facilities, updated technology, and improved services that allow a community hospital to provide more advanced, efficient, and accessible care while continuing to meet the growing needs of local patients.

Community hospitals invest in expansion and renovation to improve patient care, modernize facilities, increase service capacity, attract skilled providers, and ensure residents can receive high-quality healthcare close to home without needing to travel to larger medical centers.

Hospital expansions allow community hospitals to maintain personalized, local care while adding modern capabilities, whereas larger regional systems often provide highly specialized services but may require more travel and less individualized patient experience.

If a community hospital does not expand or modernize, patients may need to seek care at regional medical centers, large urban hospitals, or specialty clinics in nearby cities to access advanced treatments or updated facilities.

The risks of not investing in healthcare progress include outdated facilities, reduced access to modern treatments, difficulty recruiting providers, increased patient travel to larger cities, and potential loss of local healthcare services over time.

Video Transcript

How do you feel about Brookings Health's expansion and renovation project?

Lynn Darnall: I think it is not only needed at our hospital, but I think it will be a great asset to our community. This hospital already is an asset to our community. And just to expand and add even more, I just think we're very fortunate in Brookings. And I think that they will do that expansion in a very responsible, fiscally responsible way and I think it will be excellent for our community.

What makes Brookings different?

Ted Smith: It's exciting that we're having an expansion and renovation in the Brookings area. You see so much of consolidation in the healthcare industry into the large hospitals, in Sioux Falls, in this area, into Mayo, whatever it may be. To be able to get the care in your local hometown I think is very exciting and a great thing.

How do these improvements affect the community?

Barb Murra: I talk to a lot of people who aren't familiar with Brookings, who maybe are coming here for a job interview and I take them around, And they're just amazed when they see our hospital, because Brookings isn't a really large town. We like to think we are, but we're not really that large. But we have this wonderful hospital facility. And I guess I just think that with the new expansion and the renovation project that they're going to be going through, it's just going to keep us right up there. And we always like to say, "We're someplace special," and I think the hospital will be even more special than it is now

Related Info