We are very proud to announce that we have won a contract with the State of South Dakota’s Department of Health to build a statewide social care referral system, known as a Community Information Exchange (CIE), that will connect South Dakotans in need of social care services with the providers who can help them, with the goal of improving health outcomes among high-risk and underserved populations in the state. 

Findhelp will bring together the State of South Dakota government, Helpline Center/South Dakota 211, and other service providers to build an online system that will provide screening and assessments for individuals and connections to organizations that can provide help. (See how we partner with 211s across the country). 

Findhelp will support interoperability through an integration with the state’s Health Information Exchange (HIE); the CIE will provide information about social needs and predetermined health data to providers and community partners and manage service and referral requests. 

This new system will help eliminate many of the barriers that currently prevent people from finding and connecting with the services designed to support them, and will provide a single, secure platform to improve community care coordination.

Our Network in South Dakota

One of the reasons the South Dakota Department of Health chose Findhelp is because we have an engaged network that’s already in place. Our network spans the entire Mount Rushmore State and South Dakotans are already using our platform to find and connect to needed services and support. 

• 69,995 users statewide 
• 148,723 searches conducted statewide
• 2,558 listed programs serving South Dakota
• 443 claimed programs serving South Dakota

Findhelp’s data and analytic tools can identify gaps in services and provide actionable insights to inform public policy. For example, over the past two years, monthly users and searches on Findhelp’s network in South Dakota jumped 1,357% and 674% respectively, reflecting our important (and growing) role in connecting South Dakotans to local social assistance. 

Customer Spotlight: Sanford Health

We partner with several customers through the state to connect their patients, members, students, constituents, and clients to local resources. Today we’re spotlighting our partner Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the United States.

Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sanford Health launched Sanford Helps (powered by Findhelp) in 2022 to allow patients to connect with social care resources in their community for needs such as transportation, housing, and food insecurity. From April 2022 to August 2023, Sanford Helps has seen nearly 60,000 searches for community resources made by more than 24,000 community members across the region. 

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of launching their Findhelp platform, Sanford Health’s System Executive for Care Management, Lindsay Daniels, spoke with Dakota News Now about the success of Sanford Helps: “We know it’s really important for us to find a low-friction way to connect our patients and our staff to those resources, to the great people and organizations that can meet those needs.”

Reaching Rural Areas

Addressing social needs such as housing and food insecurity is critical to advance health equity among underserved populations with higher risks, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural communities. In collaboration with our existing customers like Sanford Health and our new partners at the Department of Health, we’re going to expand access and improve outcomes for South Dakotans statewide.

“We are grateful for the relationships we have built with South Dakotans over the past eight years and are honored to partner with the state’s Department of Health to reach even more residents,” said Erine Gray, Founder and CEO of Findhelp. “Individuals know they can count on Findhelp to connect them with the social care services they need, easily and compassionately, while protecting their privacy.”

Partner With Us

If you’d like to learn more about how we collaborate with CIEs and HIEs and can support your state’s work, connect with us!