Sioux Falls, South Dakota — Sanford Health is marking the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic by reflecting on the dedication of its nearly 50,000 employees as well as the extraordinary care its team of health care workers and staff have provided to the patients, residents and communities they serve.
Through a COVID-19 Impact Report from the healthcare giant, Sanford leaders describe how the organization and its caregivers responded to the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.
The report says Sanford’s commitment to its people included new programs to support employee well-being, and early mission-critical investments enabled the organization to expand testing and hospital bed capacity for COVID-19 patients across the region. At the height of the pandemic, Sanford administered life-saving monoclonal antibodies and offered an innovative home-monitoring program. The health system also delivered the vaccine to hundreds of thousands of people across a vast, geographic footprint and advanced research to bring new treatments – and hope – to its patients.
Over the course of 2020 and 2021, Sanford Health’s providers:
Cared for 10,000 COVID-19 hospitalized patients;
Administered 13,000 monoclonal antibody infusions, preventing more than 900 hospitalizations and as many as 130 deaths;
Cared for 3,200 patients in Sanford Health’s COVID-19 home-monitoring program;
Delivered 377,000 telehealth visits;
Administered 540,000 COVID-19 vaccinations
Sanford Health says they continue to support and collaborate with state and city leaders, businesses, schools and other health systems across the upper Midwest on vaccine advocacy, outreach and care delivery.
Sanford Health president and CEO Bill Gassen says everyone at Sanford remains resolute in their commitment to keep their patients and residents, people and communities healthy and safe, now and for generations to come.
