RAPID CITY, SD – The Oyate Health Center is set to introduce a new model of care that will provide expanded comprehensive care services to its patients, greater access to behavioral health, and more walk-in clinic hours.

The Oyate Health Center and the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board are conducting a community needs assessment to determine the health care needs and wants of the Rapid City Native American community. This needs assessment has shown that one of the biggest challenges facing patients is appointment availability. Currently, there is a 6-8 week wait to schedule appointments. This is unacceptable. Additionally, data collected in the community needs assessment shows that there is a want for expanded behavioral health services. Across the healthcare industry, the other primary concern of patients is limiting the amount of time they spend in the waiting room.

The introduction of Integrative Healthcare at the Oyate Health Center will address these issues and provide the best environment for patients to improve their health.

Integrated Healthcare is a Better Model:

Integrated Healthcare is an approach that demands providers work closely together with their patients to provide the best care possible.

This approach to care seeks to blend modern medical practices with “a broader understanding of the nature of illness, healing and wellness”. Instead of treating the symptoms, we will now be addressing the causes of illnesses.

Integrative Healthcare puts the patient as the main-focus and works to address all parts of their health including the physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences that impact their health.  What makes this approach work is the sharing of information among team members as they build a comprehensive treatment plan to address the overall health of patients.

Key Principles of integrated medicine (Duke University Integrated Health)

• The patient and practitioner are partners in the healing process.
• All factors that influence health, wellness and disease are taken into consideration.
• The care addresses the whole person
• Providers use all appropriate healing sciences to facilitate the body’s innate healing response.
• Effective interventions that are natural and less invasive whenever possible.
• Because good medicine is based in good science, integrative medicine is inquiry-driven and open to new models of care.
• Alongside the concept of treatment, the broader concepts of health promotion and the prevention of illness are paramount.
• The care is individualized to best address the person’s unique conditions, needs and circumstances.
• Practitioners of integrative medicine exemplify its principles and commit themselves to self-exploration and self-development.

How Will It Work?

The new integrative care model makes multiple care teams available to our relatives. Each team will consist of a medical provider, nurse case manager, pharmacist, behavioral health expert, and lab rep.

Our patients will now have their own team and will meet with its members when they visit our facility. No longer will patients be forced to navigate the building seeking out care. In this model, the team will come to the patient in the privacy of the exam room to provide one-on-one consultation to them. The team will then coordinate with the patient, and care team members, to develop a unique care plan. This eliminates confusion for our patients and allows for a one-stop healthcare experience that will be timely and effective.

Each team will be equipped with an additional medical provider who will absorb walk-in patients who are seeking same-day access. This will help to reduce waiting room times and allow for more patient appointments to be scheduled. It will also provide the best setting for improving the health of our patients.

As walk-ins enter the facility they will immediately be placed in the next opening in the schedule, this could be with the additional provider, or into a time slot where another patient was a no show.

Urgent Care will still be available from 6AM to 12 midnight.