fbpx

A Milestone for Care

Kalispell Regional Medical Center taking another step as a premier hospital with completion of a $42 million expansion

By Dillon Tabish
Design and Construction Director Marcello Pierrottet talks about the new same-day surgery beds in the new Surgical Services Tower at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. - Lido Vizzutti | Flathead Beacon

After several years of planning and two years of construction, one of the largest expansions at Kalispell Regional Medical Center is nearing completion, signaling another milestone advancement in health care and technology for a hospital with growing demand.

Builders are putting the finishing touches on the new surgical services tower, a $42 million project that will enhance many of the hospital’s essential resources such as surgery, emergency, cardiovascular and trauma.

KRMC’s parent company, recently renamed Kalispell Regional Healthcare, has tentatively scheduled a grand opening for mid-March.

Since 1976, when the city’s general hospital relocated north to Sunnyview Lane, KRMC has evolved into a nexus of health care with a sprawling campus. The latest tower development, which began in December 2010, further expands KRMC’s presence in the medical industry amid a changing landscape.

“We really took an eye to the future for those who will follow us,” said Jim Oliverson, the hospital’s senior executive director. “I feel very confident that we’ve made many of the right steps.”

As nearly 80 million Americans in the Baby Boomer generation age into retirement the wide range of health care needs will continue to skyrocket. The average life expectancy in the U.S. has risen dramatically as well, from 42 years in 1900 to 74 in 2000. The average life span in 2050 is estimated to reach 90.

In Northwest Montana, home to more than 170,000 residents across five counties, medical services are already in high demand. Just at KRMC, surgeons performed 23,795 procedures in 2011, roughly 3,000 more than in 2009, according to the hospital. The emergency services department continues to handle more than 25,000 cases per year, and often 300 per weekend.

“We’ve been overdue for something like this for a long time,” said Marcello Pierrottet, the hospital’s director of design and construction who oversaw the expansion project.

With the new three-story wing — 130,446 square feet in all — KRMC will upgrade from 35-year-old operating rooms and same-day care stations to spacious units that can accommodate more patients and state-of-the-art medical technology, such as the da Vinci surgical system, a cutting edge robotic platform used for complex procedures.

The upgrade will help the ER convert more space for much needed use. New infrastructure is also in place for future ambulance ports and emergency operating rooms.

The expansion doubles the size of its current surgical department. Throughout the three floors, the new tower will feature eight new operating rooms, 18 same-day surgery beds, 18 post-anesthesia-care beds, two endoscopy and two fluoroscopy procedure rooms as well as nurse care and physician stations.

The operating rooms stretch 830 square feet, more than twice the size of average units, according to Pierrottet. One vast room will be solely devoted to heart procedures.

“There’s a lot more equipment now and the procedures we’re doing are more intricate. That takes more space,” Pierrottet said.

“Our (operating rooms) were overflowing. We’ve been trying to take more cases with the space that we have, so this will be great for them to be here.”

KRMC has doubled the size of its medical staff in the last decade to almost 300. The surgical staff has significantly been bolstered and there are now 55 physicians with surgical privileges, representing a wide range of specialties, including cardiovascular, neurology and cancer. The only two board-certified oncologists in Montana are on KRMC’s staff.

Thomson Reuters, a nationwide business analysis firm, named KRMC one of the Top 100 Hospitals in 2012. Out of roughly 5,000 hospitals nationwide, KRMC ranked among the top 5 percent of hospitals in the U.S. in patient safety and care, according to Health Grades.
“We’ve laid a platform of extraordinary talent,” Oliverson said.

“We feel confident that we can care for patients here and we feel good about the fact that the word is getting out.”

Oliverson said he is also proud of how the latest expansion project helped the local economy during the recession.

“I’m especially proud of the money that went into the local trades,” he said. “When the community needed dollars we were able to be there.”

A state inspection of the new tower is planned for mid-February. Staff is beginning to move into their new work spaces while builders finish painting and moving in furniture.

Both the staff and patients will notice right away a bright difference compared to the old building.

“We tried to give them as much daylight as we can,” Pierrottet said. “It just makes it a lot nicer working environment and patients recover a lot easier when there’s more daylight.”

Pierrottet came to KRMC 10 years ago when the hospital was expanding its patient tower. After supervising that project he was hired on staff and began working on the preliminary plans for this latest expansion, which is about the same size and scope as the patient tower. Both projects are the two largest in the hospital’s history, he said.

During the planning phase several years ago, Pierrottet and a large team of planners and board members surveyed hospital staff about what their needs were and how their working environment could be improved. They also looked at other hospitals in similar settings. A & E Architects out of Billings crafted KRMC’s vision into a rendered document, and Swank Enterprises of Kalispell built it into a reality.

“It’s nice to see the whole thing coming to fruition after all these years of planning and construction,” Pierrottet said.

An energy-efficient geothermal system, operating out of the basement and adjacent wells, was created and will supply cool air throughout the entire expanded tower.

“Our overall square footage is increasing but our energy usage will go down because of these wells,” Pierrottet said.

There is also infrastructure in place to develop two more floors on top of the expanded tower in the future.

It’s all part of KRMC’s evolution as a regional destination for care.

“All of this is moving in the right direction,” Oliverson said.