Relieving mothers and training doctors

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Parents know that having a child isn’t cheap. In the United States, on average, nearly nineteen thousand dollars.

Health insurance can help lower that price tag, but it’s something not everyone has. That’s where a unique OB Clinic within Sanford Health can help.

Marrissa Blom has had all five, soon to be six, of her kids with the team in the clinic.

“Honestly, financially it’s been very helpful,” Blom said. “And I guess, in a way, I’m a little bit drawn to it simply for the fact that I’m helping out, in a sense. This practice is helping out new doctors starting out.”

This clinic has a two-fold mission. First, it helps relieve some of the financial burdens on expecting families.

“This clinic started back in the early 1960s, actually. It was a partnership between Sioux Valley then and Lutheran Social Services,” Ronda Haushild, the OB Clinic Manager, said. “What they found is that we had women that didn’t have other resources to help them pay for their prenatal care and their delivery expenses. So, they therefore would not get any care, which left them with sick moms, sick babies, all kinds of tragedies, if you will.”

That doesn’t mean the care is completely free, though.

“We provide prenatal care, we provide delivery expenses at the hospital,” Haushild said. “Any medications they need through their pregnancy, it’s all under this package. So it’s really a fee-for-service program that they pay for – a set amount. Whereas if you went to the doctor and had labs drawn and a doctor’s visit and an x-ray or something, you get individual charges for all that. They get charges for that but they pay this flat fee.”

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The second part of the clinic’s mission is training new doctors.

“We want experienced clinicians out in our rural settings or in Sioux Falls. We want them experienced,” Haushild said. “So, yeah, every year in July we get a fresh batch of brand new residents, fresh out of medical school.”

Sometimes those residents stick around and assume much larger roles in the clinic.

“I was actually a resident in this program, in OB Clinic. I’ve been here as a medical director for, this is my third year. Starting my third year,” Carolyn Gilbertson, the OB Clinic Medical Director, said.

It’s a unique program that impacts people far beyond Sioux Falls.

“We are the only program of this sort in the region. We’ve had patients come as far as out West River like by Rapid City to get care here,” Haushild said.

Care that’s needed and important.

“You know, I worry about what would happen to these women and these babies if we weren’t here,” Gilbertson said. “The burden of the cost of medical care can be substantial so we worry that people would ration their care or not seek care at all. So we’re here really to provide that safety net.”

While the clinic is only open on Thursday mornings, there are still great bonds nurses and doctors are able to make with their patients.

“There’s several families that have had all of their babies with us and I think that speaks families to the care that we provide and the program that we have,” Gilbertson said. “I think somebody that comes back for their care seven to eight times just really talks volumes.”

A sentiment Blom can attest to.

“You get to know all the nurses and you also see them again when you deliver your child oftentimes and it just kind of turns into a family in a sense,” Blom said.

The clinic is small and only able to help around 70 patients a year.

Expecting parents can learn more about it from sources like the Helpline Center or get referred by Sanford family doctors.