BILLINGS — On Thursday, Billings Clinic held two ribbon-cutting ceremonies to celebrate its two new departments, the Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit and the Helmsley Regional Operations Center.
Billings Clinic aims to expand access to regional healthcare, equitable to Salt Lake City, Seattle and Denver with the two new departments.
See a tour of the two new departments in the video below:
The new surgical intensive care unit (SICU), once it opens, will be the first of its kind in Montana. The goal of a SICU is to provide exceptional care to patients with traumatic injuries.
"This is a game changer for the state of Montana and Wyoming, because we are now a center which can take care of any severely, traumatically injured patient," said Dr. Gordon Riha, a general surgery trauma and surgical critical care physician at Billings Clinic.
According to Riha, before creating the SICU at Billings Clinic, patients with severe traumatic injuries would be sent to larger cities with higher levels of medical care, such as Denver and Seattle.
"We have been working for the past eight to 10 years on Level 1 Trauma Center verification. And within that 'pie in the sky' idea of our own surgical intensive care unit as well," Riha said Thursday.
Billings Clinic received its Level 1 Trauma Center verification in 2023. It was the first hospital in Montana to do so. After receiving that verification, Billings Clinic began a $32 million capital campaign to expand accessible healthcare to rural Montana and Wyoming.
That campaign includes the new SICU and operations center, a future expanded emergency room, Montana's first surgical residency rotation program, and the MedFlight program.
The new Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit and the new Helmsley Regional Operations Center were funded in part by the Billings Clinic Foundation and a $12 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust, according to trustee Walter Panzirer, has five major programs, including a rural health program.
"We came to Montana because there was a need in Montana, a need to level that playing field and healthcare equality," said Panzirer.
Panzirer currently serves nine states and two U.S. territories, with the goal of expanding healthcare to rural communities.
"We try to meet Montana where they're at, and help keep care local and close to home. Because I'm a firm believer (that) your zip code should not determine your health care outcome," he said.
Within the $12 million grant, $7 million went into the new SICU, $3.5 million went into the operations center, and the rest helped fund the Billings Clinic Mobile Extra-corporeal Membrane Oxygenation program.
The Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care unit is still under construction and is expected to open at the end of June. It's located on the fourth floor of the Billings Clinic main hospital, and each room is equipped with hospital beds and surgical equipment.
"A surgical intensive care unit helps to take care of traumatically injured patients, and patients who have complex surgical issues," said Riha.
The new dispatch center, the Helmsley Regional Operations Center, houses dozens of new computers and monitors, with the goal of making communications between hospitals and clinics in Montana and Wyoming more accessible.
"Now care can be delivered at home. And any time you get care close to home, it's better for the patient, it's better on the family, and this whole support network," said Panzirer.
On Friday, Billings Clinic and the Helmsley Charitable Trust will be continuing their collaboration efforts to expand healthcare to rural Montana, by opening the new Helmsley Cancer Center at the Central Montana Medical Center in Lewistown.
