Nov. 27, 2019

This paid piece is sponsored by Sanford Health.

When Tracy Vogt entered Sanford Health’s new walk-in clinic at the Sanford Sports Complex near Interstate 29 and Benson Road on a Monday morning, the workers seemed a little over-the-top excited to see her. Like they were about to throw her a party or something.

Vogt, a mom of three with her own jewelry design business who lives in Crooks, had arrived in less than half the time it used to take her to travel to a Sanford Health acute care clinic. So she was about as happy as she could be with a pain that hadn’t cooperatively vanished overnight.

Vogt had noticed the walk-in clinic under construction as she drove her daughter to volleyball games at the Sanford Pentagon. So when she thought gallstones were causing her pain, she was greeted excitedly at the clinic with “We didn’t know if we’d have anybody today,” Vogt recalls.

Confused, she asked them, “So you don’t have very many people right away?”

They replied back, “No, you’re the first patient.”

“Of the day?” she asked.

“No, ever.”

Vogt, who estimates that her family uses acute care four times a year, was impressed with the brand-new facility – and the amount of attention she received as the inaugural patient.

In fact, when she discovered that her kids also could get their flu shots there, Vogt came back with them after school. “It worked out great,” she said.

Since the clinic opened at the end of September, “I’ve been there twice,” she said.

Vogt is excited to trim her typical trip to acute care from 22 minutes – at Sanford Health’s 26th Street and Sycamore Avenue location – to 10 minutes.

“So many people will be so happy who live on the north end or outside of Sioux Falls because it’s just a convenience,” she remembers telling the clinic workers.

Now, Sanford Health is well-positioned to serve patients without appointments all over Sioux Falls as quickly as possible – just short trips to five walk-in clinics. In addition to the north-end Sanford Sports Complex clinic and the east-side 26th and Sycamore site, the 10th Street and Phillips Avenue clinic serves residents and the business community downtown. The 32nd Street and Ellis Road location serves the west side of Sioux Falls, and the 69th Street and Minnesota Avenue clinic serves the south side.

So wherever people live, work, go to school or child care, they have convenient options for a quick trip to a walk-in clinic for anything that comes up.

For a family like the Vogts, where school, sports practices and work already keep them plenty busy, this convenience is priceless. Especially when things such as ear infections arise at the least convenient times, like in the evening or on weekends, when they can’t see their primary care doctors.

“When you go into an acute care facility, you want some type of relief or answers of something,” Vogt said. “I feel that they do a very good job of communicating with you and getting you what you need to go on throughout your day.”