It's being called a once-in-a-generation project about to reshape the healthcare landscape in Billings.
Intermountain Health has broken ground on a brand-new, 14-story hospital, a full replacement of the current facility, and celebrated on Tuesday afternoon.
See St. Vincent celebration here:
“It'll be the best hospital in the state of Montana, hands down, not even a question,” said Lee Boyles, Intermountain Health president for St. Vincent Regional Hospital and Montana-Wyoming market. “It'll be the most beautiful, the most state of the art, the most technology.”
“Pray for all who serve and are served within, we ask this through Christ our Lord,” Bishop Michael Warfel said as he prayed at the ground-breaking.
Warfel performed the blessing for the new building, 125 years after the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth started St. Vincent Hospital in Billings.
“Our Catholic identity is so important to what we do,” said Boyles.
Boyles says the nearly $1 billion, 14-floor, 737,000-square-foot building will allow the doctors and nurses to do more than they can now in the old building.
“Practicing 21st-century medicine in 100-year-old buildings is extremely hard,” Boyles said. “And so to have rooms that fit the times that fit the technology that's available, it's going to be incredible.”
The new hospital will be more than just a new building with new technology.
They'll also try to work in some efficiencies that will help all the people working, including nurses, as well as the patients.
“We really are trying to emphasize on stage, off stage,” said Jena Huck, St. Vincent nursing director for adult inpatients. “And so our patients can be taken care of in privacy, transported in privacy, And there's a nice welcoming environment for our guests as well.”
Huck says nurses had a lot of input in designing where they work, and the result will allow them to easily transition between departments.
“So the concept is to have universal rooms and so every room is built the same,” said Huck. “And so if we need special equipment for an ICU patient, we can bring that in, but the setup is the same. The wall mounts are the same and so any nurse can come to that room and really take care of that patient and know where everything is.”
“That just creates safety,” Boyles said. “It creates quality. It creates uniformity. It creates comfort for patients and families.”
And they say there will be that same special St. Vincent feel when entering the new hospital.
“The value we bring because of our Catholic roots and what the sisters have done and what they've instilled in us, it's very, very important,” Boyles said.
“Really working closely with our sisters and again understanding that this is a calling and that this is an opportunity to care for our community,” Huck said.
The plan is to open Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital in 2029.
