Walsh Family Village

A home away from home for patients at Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls. The Avera McKennan Foundation is proud to announce the opening of Walsh Family Village, a place of refuge for out-of-town families and patients of Avera McKennan that are facing serious and intense medical treatments.

Walsh Family Village consists of three separate "homes away from home": Casa de Carlitos, with rooms reserved for children from the Los Cabos Children's Foundation and their families, Ronald McDonald House, and the Nano Nagle Home. All three homes are dedicated to serving the lodging needs of patients and families receiving crucial health care services from Avera McKennan.

The need for Walsh Family Village is stronger than one might think. Many patients require extended stays or frequent trips to and from the hospital for treatments, and a large group of these patients live outside of Sioux Falls, which makes expenses for gas and lodging overwhelming. In addition, lengthy hospital stays often mean taking time off work to receive care or stay with a loved one receiving care - adding stress that affects quality of life and health.

"Currently, Avera McKennan serves more than half of the regional market and over half of those patients must travel from outside Sioux Falls," said Fred Slunecka, regional president of Avera McKennan. "Providing lodging to our out-of-town patients and their family support systems during critical health situations is essential to our patients' best possible healing."

Through all of this, the Walsh Family Village will be there, both to ease out of pocket expenses and to provide a little peace of mind during a difficult time for patients who are in Sioux Falls for organ or bone marrow transplant, radiation and chemotherapy, premature and critically ill newborns, mothers on bed rest, long-term rehabilitation, and more.