Coronavirus Disease 2019
Brookings Health System continues to take the necessary safety measures and precautions to ensure our services are delivered as safely as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also remain ready to cease non-essential care in the event a COVID-19 surge develops in our community.
Please remember: this is an evolving situation. Brookings Health System is staying up-to-date on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and South Dakota Department of Health guidelines and implementing changes immediately as needed.
Stay Strong, Brookings
The South Dakota Department of Health is still reporting COVID-19 cases throughout the state. Currently, Brookings County is listed as having high spread of COVID-19, meaning we have 100+ cases per 100,000 people. We must use all of the tools available to us to end the pandemic, including vaccinations, testing, social distancing, masks, hand hygiene and frequent cleaning.
Watch & Learn
Brookings resident Rina Reynolds shares her experience receiving outpatient treatment at the ER for her COVID symptoms at Brookings Health System. Dr. Matt Bien explains what parents need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine and children. Darren Benike shares his experience being hospitalized both in inpatient care with us and the intensive care unit in Sioux Falls with COVID-19 in the two videos below. Ambrose Warborg and Chris Edmonds share their experiences being hospitalized with COVID-19. Learn about the ways our team members have been going above and beyond for patients during the pandemic and listen to a thank you message for both our staff and our community.
COVID-19 Medical Surge Capacity
Medical surge capacity is a medical organization's ability to evaluate and care for a marked increase volume of patients that challenges or exceeds normal operating capacity. If Brookings Health System exceeds our normal medical infrastructure due to COVID-19 at any point during the pandemic, we have the capability to care for up to 80 patients at our facility.
Our Bed Management Plan for COVID-19 Medical Surge Capacity details how we will safely accommodate and care for COVID-19 patients and at what point we must exceed Brookings Hospital's 49-bed licensure in accordance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ emergency declaration.
This graphic notates Brookings Hospital's range of COVID-19 patient occupied hospital beds according to the Bed Management Plan for COVID-19 Medical Surge Capacity. It does not reflect the total number of patients hospitalized throughout the pandemic.
Please Note: Brookings Hospital's range of COVID-19 patient occupied hospital beds is not a direct correlation to the number of COVID-19 positive cases or patient hospitalizations from Brookings County.
Local COVID-19 Information
Learn more about COVID-19 from the South Dakota Department of Health at covid.sd.gov or call the COVID information hotline with questions at 1-800-997-2880. You may also learn about the local response from the City of Brookings government and Brookings County.
Frequently Asked Questions
COVID-19 Health Information
Self-Care & Treatment at Home for COVID-19
When you are sick with COVID-19, it’s important you remain at home and isolate yourself from other household members and pets. Current treatment is supportive care aimed at helping your body while it fights the virus.
Additional Health Resources
COVID-19 News from Brookings Health
New Transport Ventilator Provides Critical Support During Patient Transfers
Brookings Health System’s respiratory care department recently invested in a new, state-of-the-art Hamilton-T1 transport ventilator. The new ventilator will allow care teams to easily transfer critical patients, such as those with severe pneumonia from COVID-19, who need additional breathing support.
Brookings Health Encourages Self-Testing for COVID-19
With the current rise in COVID-19 cases spread by the omicron variant, Brookings Health System encourages community members who have started experiencing mild COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to someone confirmed to have COVID-19 to use an at-home, self-test for diagnosis.
“Brace for this month.”
According to the South Dakota Department of Health, omicron is now the predominantly circulating COVID-19 variant in the state. With a significantly higher transmission rate than previous variants such alpha and delta, Brookings Health cautions the community that omicron will spread with lightning speed.