The Rosebud Hospital is located on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Photo by Crystal R. Leighton

Health | National

Indian Health Service names new medical officer in Great Plains

Friday, September 23, 2016

The Indian Health Service announced a new chief medical officer for the troubled Great Plains Area after tribes complained about the prior person in the job.

Lee Lawrence is new to the IHS, having come from the private sector. That might help address tribal concerns about the agency's earlier decision to place Susan Karol in the position despite some questionable comments she made about the quality of care in the region.

"No tribal leaders were consulted. Rosebud certainly was not," William Bear Shield, a council member for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, told lawmakers at a hearing on Capitol Hill in July.

But with Karol, a member of the Tuscarora Nation out of the picture, the IHS is welcoming Lawrence to the job. According to the agency, he has worked in private health care in Wisconsin, where he received his medical degree.

"We are pleased that Dr. Lawrence joined the team in the IHS Great Plains Area. His extensive experience as an emergency doctor and expertise in quality improvement as a physician leader will help IHS in providing quality care to American Indian and Alaska Native patients," Chris Buchanan, the acting regional director for the Great Plains, said in a press release. "IHS chief medical officers in each region are responsible for ensuring that comprehensive care is provided at each hospital, health station, clinic and facility that IHS operates."

The IHS long faced criticism from tribes and members of Congress about the state of care in the Great Plains, a region that includes Nebraska and South Dakota. Facilities in those two states are considered among the worst-performing in Indian Country.

Progress seemed to be at hand when the IHS reached agreements to improve operations at the Rosebud Service Unit and the Pine Ridge Service Unit, both in South Dakota. Emergency services were finally restored at Rosebud in July, following a seven-month shutdown during which at least nine people died while being transported to facilities further from the reservation.

But just last week, the agency announced a shutdown in the emergency department at the Sioux San Hospital, which serves a large urban Indian population in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tribal leaders again complained about the lack of consultation.

Despite the setbacks, the IHS has continued to engage in consultation with tribes and urban Indian organizations about operations in the Great Plains, whose headquarters are located in Aberdeen, South Dakota, far from nearly every reservation in the region. Comments about potential changes are being accepted through November 30, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Friday.

Federal Register Notice:
Notice of Tribal Consultation and Urban Confer Sessions on the State of the Great Plains Area Indian Health Service; Extension of Comment Period (September 23, 2016)