Avera Heart Hospital plans biggest expansion since opening

Nov. 3, 2025

Avera Heart Hospital breaks ground this week on the largest expansion since it opened in 2001.

The new $21.5 million addition officially begins construction with a ground breaking at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. It will add 35,000 square feet on the north side of the hospital facing Interstate 229.

It will house high-end diagnostic imaging services and administrative space. Housing imaging services in the new addition will make expansion space available for clinic services from North Central Heart, which is the heart and vascular specialty clinic attached to the Avera Heart Hospital.

“The Avera mission and Avera Heart Hospital culture are behind the growth we’re seeing in heart and vascular specialty services – attracting new physicians as well as patients,” said Mick Gibbs, president and CEO of Avera Heart Hospital.

The ground floor of the three-story addition will house:

• Cardiac PET — positron emission tomography — CT that creates images of the heart from every angle using radioactive tracers to pinpoint the location of the disease.
• SPECT scan with CZT — cadmium-zinc telluride — technology, a type of imaging test that uses a radioactive substance and a special camera to create 3D pictures. It shows how well blood is flowing to the heart.
• Three nuclear stress rooms.
• Fifteen echo/vascular sonography rooms. Echocardiograms are a basic diagnostic test that are often a first step for heart patients.

The garden level will have cardiac MRI and space for additional CT equipment. The third level will be shell space for future expansion.

A 5-foot scrolling likeness of an EKG reading will be an architectural feature that’s visible from I-229.

 “With 22 cardiologists and more signed on for the future, North Central Heart and Avera have the largest team of heart professionals in Sioux Falls and the region,” Gibbs said. “We’re constantly recruiting to keep up with growing market share.”

A year earlier, Planet Heart screenings moved off the Avera Heart Hospital campus to a nearby location shared with Avera Home Medical Equipment – a move that also opened up room for additional clinic exam space, capacity for outpatient surgery and a sixth catheterization lab. Updates to inpatient rooms also were part of that project.

Avera Heart Hospital was the first hospital in Sioux Falls and South Dakota dedicated solely to heart and vascular care and has earned national recognition multiple times for quality and service. It was the first nationally accredited chest pain center in the state and region.

The team serves patients with cardiac, electrophysiologic, thoracic and vascular care, including everything from prevention and diagnostic imaging to interventional cardiology and complex surgical procedures. A 24/7 emergency department specializes in cardiovascular events, including heart attack and chest pain.

The hospital supports patients with a full range of services from critical care to cardiac catheterization, laboratory, cardiac rehab and specialized imaging.

“The new imaging center will allow heart and vascular specialties to have the latest technologies to help diagnose and treat our patients,” said Dr. Christopher Paa, a cardiologist with North Central Heart. “Having this level of advanced imaging technology right here in Sioux Falls will also save patients hundreds of miles of travel to be evaluated.”

Avera leaders plan to occupy the new addition next winter.

Findings from a Planet Heart screening or symptoms that result in an initial appointment with a cardiologist “are like a check-engine light on your dashboard. Advanced imaging technology helps heart and vascular specialists figure out what it is and how they can best address it,” Gibbs said.

“That’s our ultimate goal – giving our patients more time with their loved ones, more joy, more life. That’s why we’re here at the Avera Heart Hospital and why we are expanding to serve our community and region.”

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