Avera

The two grants, Project NEXT and the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention Training Program, come courtesy of the Health Resources and Services Administration – or HERSA. Karna Pfeffer is director of education at Avera St. Mary’s in Pierre. She says telehealth and education are on the table.

Avera's "Ask the Question" campaign provides resources and tools promoting discussions about suicide for National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.

Avera says a data breach allowed someone to obtain the private information of about 700 patients.

The focus this week of On Call with the Prairie Doc® is ear, nose, and throat. These are vital parts of our bodies and need to be attended to in order to keep them operating properly. There are many factors that affect these parts such as antihistamine use, what are the long-term effects? Dr. Kelly Evans is this week’s host of On Call with the Prairie Doc®.

Your skin has a pretty big job; you should be kind to it. That's according to our next guest. Deb Johnston, M.D., is part of the Prairie Doc® team of physicians. She practices family medicine in Brookings and joins us ahead of this week's On Call with the Prairie Doc® program on SDPB-TV to talk about the largest organ in the human body.

Avera has announced plans to build the state’s largest pickleball facility. The health-care provider will construct 12 outdoor courts at its Avera on Louise campus in Sioux Falls.

Surviving (or witnessing) life-threatening trauma can lead some people to develop the multi-layered symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Those symptoms can take years to unravel.

An anonymous donor is giving Avera $11 million as a gift for capital improvements. The funds are for building updates and other improvements across South Dakota and Minnesota.

"I'm telling folks to weigh their risks and understand their health conditions. I think we can have really good confidence in the recommendations from the FDA and CDC. And hopefully, with time we get more evidence to support the safety and the efficacy of the vaccines."

Avera Health's Michael Elliott, MD, joins us with a South Dakota COVID update. We explore the impact of at-home COVID tests in predicting the pandemic path. We also discuss an Omicron subvariant and whether or not South Dakotans should be concerned about its impact.