Page 5 - Flathead Beacon // 8.13.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
NEWS
AUGUST 13, 2014 | 5
W•O•R•D•S of the Week
AN INDEX OF RECENT NEWSMAKERS
FAIR
The Northwest Montana Fair is underway and runs through Aug. 17 with plenty of fun-filled events, such as rodeo, demolition derby, a carnival, concerts and more.
MEGALOADS
A massive piece of refinery equipment — weighing no more than 1 million pounds and stretching no more than 400 feet — is coming this way later this month. The megaload is en route from Idaho to Great Falls.
IRAQ
The U.S. military has of- ficially re-engaged in Iraq, with U.S. fighters dropping bombs on Islamic militants in Iraq last week to counter the advancing forces.
GUNS IN GLACIER
An injured hiker fired a gun into the air in Glacier National Park to attract help over the weekend in the second report of someone discharging a firearm in the park in as many weeks.
SENATE RACE
Now that U.S. Sen. John Walsh has discontinued his campaign, Democrats will have to select a new candi- date, which the party plans on doing Aug. 16.
With Latest Expansion, KRMC Seeks to Address Overcrowding in the ER
Kalispell Regional Medical Center raising public support to upgrade emergency services
By DILLON TABISH of the Beacon
Among employees in the emergency room at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, the word “quiet” is frequently avoided.
The congested space on the south end of the hospital’s campus brims with nurses and doctors who eschew the term with a sort of superstition, well aware that any moment multiple urgent incidents could disrupt the calm.
“Right now is the most peaceful time of day. But yesterday in here at noon, it was insane,” said Mary Mae Stubbs, director of emergency services at Kalispell Regional Healthcare. “You couldn’t hear anything. And that wasn’t even close to peak hours.”
In a valley with more than 90,000 res- idents, and hundreds of thousands of visi- tors annually, the demand for emergency services remains high.
According to KRMC administrators, the hospital served 22,618 patients in 2012 through its emergency department and trauma center. The ALERT program, which includes multiple aircraft that pro- vide life-flight services across Northwest Montana, transported 452 critically ill patients.
Yet while the need has expanded, the amount of space in Kalispell has not. The 8,179-square-foot ER remains largely in the same footprint as when it was first developed in 1976, and improvements that were made in the last remodel in 1991 have already become outdated and deficient.
Hallways are cramped with over- flowing supplies and nurse workstations. Gurneys carrying patients can narrowly navigate most of the corridors, and the doorways are almost all scuffed at the edges from run-ins. The 13 patient rooms, also cluttered with the typical array of
hospital resources, are confined spaces that are hardly private. During the peak of summer, patients are sometimes placed in the hallways awaiting an open room while others endure long wait times before receivinginitialcare.
“It’s cramped. It’s tight. And it’s so loud, sometimes, when you’re trying to coordinate the whole department, you just feel like pulling your hair out and run- ning to the bathroom to hide,” Stubbs said.
In an effort to address the growing strain on the emergency services depart- ment and prepare for population growth into the future, the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation is raising public support for a $14 million expansion and upgrade at the hospital. Foundation board members, volunteers, KRMC staff and administrators have pledged $5.4 million as of last summer, according to the hospi- tal. The remaining funds are being rallied in the community through private donors.
Overcrowding PAGE 26
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The nurses station in the emergency room at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
GREG LINDSTROM FLATHEAD BEACON
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