Prairie Lakes collaborates to bring quality healthcare to our region. Jill Fuller, CEO and President of Prairie Lakes emphasizes that in an interview with Kris Bevill for the November, 2014 Edition of Prairie Business. The article includes interviews from three independent healthcare organizations about their strategies to thrive. Kris Bevill of Prairie Business Magazine writes:
Fuller says another benefit of being independent is the ability to partner with multiple entities, regardless of affiliation. Prairie Lakes is committed to providing specialty care for approximately 87,000 people within the 10-county area it serves, but the medical center in Watertown is about 100 miles away from the nearest large health care system. So Fuller says Prairie Lakes teams with both of the closest large providers — Sanford Health and Avera — as well as critical access hospitals in its area, to bring in primary care providers from large systems and to send out its own specialists where needed.
“Our philosophy is that people should get health care as close to their own home as possible,” Fuller says. “They should be able to choose their doctor. We like to say we’re independent but we’re not a stand-alone hospital,” she says. “I think if we were isolated and in our own little world, our challenges would be incredible because we wouldn't be keeping up with best practices. But we’re not stand-alone.”