Sanford Health muscling into Rapid City with purchase of hospital

Once enemies of physician-owners, health system and Black Hills doctors joining forces with acquisition

Sanford Health is diving into the Rapid City health market in a big way, buying a luxury physician-owned hospital that has some of the highest quality-of-care metrics in the country.

The move to acquire Black Hills Surgical Hospital will also come with its biggest asset — its doctors, who currently own 46 percent of the hospital, Sanford President and CEO Bill Gassen confirmed in an interview with The Dakota Scout. Gassen praised them for their skill in medicine and for being talented business people who have built a “wonderful” business model.

“The ability to be able to partner with them is really what makes this so attractive and makes them the partner we want to be doing this with,” Gassen said. “If this were just acquiring an asset out there, we wouldn’t be interested in that.”

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