MONUMENT HEALTH MEET CUSTER’ S CARE TEAM
Monument Health doctors from left, back: Dr. Jeff Stephens, MD; Dr. Conner Weiser, DO; Dr. Jaron Miner, DO; Dr. Avery Sides, MD; front Dr. Lisa Brown, MD; Dr. Louise Halbleib, DO; Dr. Joy Falkenburg, MD; Dr. Monaleze Saini, MD; Diane Wilken, NP; Jamie Rodeer, CNP.
One of my greatest joys has been mentoring students, residents, and young physicians.— Dr. Joy Falkenburg
The original Custer Community Hospital was dedicated Dec. 9, 1962, when the founding hospital committee had five members. The last addition to that hospital was completed in 1986 and it became an 11-bed critical access hospital. Custer Community Hospital was bought by Regional Health in 1993 and later renamed Custer Regional Hospital. An assisted living center was added in 1999 to expand its level of care. Custer Regional Hospital acquired the operation of the nursing home in 2001 which made for wellrounded healthcare. Regional H ealth changed names to Monument Health in 2020. The nursing home was recently closed and subsequently reopened in a partnership between Custer City and a private nursing home manager. The original hospital was returned to green space after the new Monument Health clinic and hospital was built in 2018. Custer currently has a 24 hour emergency department, a 16 bed hospital, a clinic with same day appointments and regular scheduled appointments. Custer, Hill City and Hot Springs operations are overseen by market President Barb Hespen.
The doctors and providers in Custer care for obstetric and newborns with deliveries in Rapid City. They are well versed at complicated internal medicine, wellness visits and preventive medicine. They also love taking care of pediatric and adolescent children.“ We are the jack-of-all-trades and take care of the entire family from cradle to grave,” says Joy Falkenburg, M. D., who practices at the clinic.“ Our ER can care for complex injuries and begin life-saving treatment for strokes, heart attacks and trauma.”
Custer physicians are board certified and carry certifications in advanced life support( ALS), pediatric life support( PALS) and advanced trauma life support( ATLS). We admit patients into our hospital that do not require ICU level monitoring, dialysis or surgery. We transfer those who require more advanced specialty care. We also pride ourselves in palliative care and support patients in the dying process.
Recently, we have changed how we do things. Previously, all doctors rotated through the hospital, clinic, same day and regular clinics. Going forward, Dr. Saini will no longer have clinic hours and will focus instead on the Emergency Department and hospital. Dr. Miner will move to the clinic and assist in the ER on an as-needed basis. Drs. Sides, Halbleib, Stephens and Weisser will continue attending to the clinic, hospital and ER. Dr. Falkenburg will continue her limited days in-clinic. Dr. Brown will continue her administrative role along with minimal ER duties and clinic care for a small group of patients. We will still occasionally call on Emergency Medicine physicians from Rapid City to assist in the ER and hospital.
Our hospital coverage will be team-based, as it has been with Jamie Roder and another advanced practice practitioner. We also have Diane Wilkens helping with acute and chronic patients in the clinic. With all that being said … let’ s get to know this team better. Here are their stories.
18 Down Country Roads September / October 2025