Avera Health and Owens & Minor Inc., a Fortune 500 global health care company, officially open their new integrated service center this week.
The 330,000-square-foot building is at Foundation Park in northwest Sioux Falls. A ribbon cutting is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on West Memory Circle.
Virginia-based Owens & Minor designs, manufactures and sources health care products. The company has provided medical supplies to Avera since 2012, but this is its first location in South Dakota.
The company is leasing more than 170,000 square feet and expects to employ about 50 people there.
“This state-of-the-art facility will be used to distribute essential medical and surgical products to health care organizations across a five-state region,” said Andy Long, executive vice president and CEO of products and health care services at Owens & Minor.
“It is designed to integrate operational efficiencies, providing real-time visibility and quality measures to help drive the efficiencies and high-service levels our customers expect from Owens & Minor.”
Products warehoused for distribution include anything that a hospital would need to operate, from N95 respirators to surgical wrap, gloves, gowns, kits for surgical procedures and more, he said.
“We’re proud to officially join the Sioux Falls business community, continuing our commitment to health care medical distribution in South Dakota,” Long said. “Having a stronger presence in the region drives enhanced efficiencies with current and future customers, strengthening our ability to support health care within these communities.”
Avera will occupy about 155,000 square feet and has started to move in with a phased approach, aimed at being fully operational by midyear. The facility creates an integrated service center hub for managing and coordinating medical supply logistics.
“This building allows us move products, supplies, pharmaceuticals and more out of smaller spaces throughout our organization, bring them into one building and service back out to the masses in a more efficient process, instead of having a lot of different functions spread out,” said Sara Henderson, vice president for supply chain at Avera Health.
It will house numerous Avera services, including:
- Centralized pharmacy services.
- Supply chain, serving as central distribution for supplies for Avera hospitals, clinics and long-term care centers.
- Biomedical engineering, the department that maintains medical capital equipment, including patient monitors, beds, diagnostic technology and more.
- Home medical equipment distribution center.
- Print shop.
- Courier operations.
There’s also space for larger medical products, including capital equipment that can be staged for other buildings, such as the new women and children’s tower at Avera McKennan.
“We’re also able to bring our home medical equipment and our hospital business together in the same space, which creates better flow and more efficiency,” Henderson said. “Throughout the process, we’ve discovered ways to maximize the expertise within our organization and create added value.”
The Avera Integrated Services Center will consolidate Avera outpatient pharmacy operations as well as the Avera hospital pharmacy distribution center.
“There will be many efficiencies gained in our processes for medication procurement, storage, compounding, dispensing and inventory management,” said Melissa Goff, vice president of pharmacy at Avera.
“By streamlining medication distribution tasks, this will allow more time for our pharmacists to focus on direct patient care and optimizing therapy outcomes.”
The additional space also will allow for Avera to procure bulk, cost-reduced pharmaceuticals, as well as “anticipatory purchasing of products experiencing national shortages in an effort to meet the needs of our Avera hospitals and clinics,” Goff said.
The connectivity to Owens & Minor is an added benefit, Henderson said.
“We have a door that literally goes into their space, so we can coordinate logistics of delivery instead of having multiple trucks going,” she said. “We’ll be able to work closely together to understand inventory levels we’ll want to have stored on their side, plus they’re four hours closer now. So that gives us even more resiliency to get our deliveries to sites.”
For Owens & Minor, the location “allows for our distribution operations to effectively serve communities across a five-state region,” Long said.
The new building is the latest to open at Foundation Park, which added FedEx Freight recently and has seen construction begin on the new CJ Schwan’s Asian food production facility.
“We are thrilled to have both Avera and Owens & Minor joining the list of tenants in Foundation Park,” said Dean Dziedzic, vice president of economic development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.
“This is a perfect fit because it meets our mission of landing companies in some of our key industries: health care and biosciences. Also, both of these companies will pay well above median wages.”
Both sides of the building will utilize technology.
The Avera side will incorporate robotics, both in a conveyor format within the specialty pharmacy area and as a way to move product from one place to another throughout the building.
Robotics within the pharmacy operations will improve efficiencies in medication procurement, dispensing and transport, as well as assist in the repackaging of medications.
“Pharmacy automation can also improve safety and accuracy in dispensing medications by adding another layer of verification through barcode technology,” Goff said, adding that also frees up pharmacists to focus more on clinical work and patient engagement.
“I am beyond excited for the opportunities that lie ahead given the advanced technology, additional space, integration and collaboration that will now be at our fingertips with this new building. It will take our ability to serve our communities to the highest level and remove many barriers that currently exist to expand pharmacy services and improve the patient experience.”
Owens & Minor will use augmented reality through “Vision Pick technology.”
“This technology, which is device-driven, is used to drive the picking of products within the facility to enhance efficiency,” Long said.
Positions range from supervisors, operators and coordinators for warehouse, transportation, inventory and logistics. To view all current job openings, visit owens-minor.com/careers.
Avera largely is relocating employees from other sites to the new building. There’s also room to expand as needed, Henderson said.
“This building has the ability to scale,” she said. “We have space in each area to grow into as we go.”