EDITORIAL: Hospital's growth benefits us all

Kalispell Regional Heathcare is poised to add another dimension to its repertoire of health-care services in the Flathead Valley by building a $40 million pediatric center.

The 190,000-square-foot, three-story center planned directly east of the hospital will allow children in need of intensive care to be treated closer to home. Health-care officials expect services to begin on the first floor of the facility by spring 2018.

It’s an ambitious project, but Kalispell Regional Healthcare has proven time and time again it has the moxie needed to create a regional health-care system that is second to none.

It was just five years ago when work began on a $42 million surgical tower. A year and a half later that project already was nearing completion. The new 130,446-square-foot surgical services tower enabled Kalispell Regional to add new operating rooms, same-day surgery beds and other facilities.

Two years ago the hospital embarked on a $14 million expansion and upgrade of its Emergency Services Department. The capital campaign for the ER expansion has been completed, and the expanded department will be up and running by May 2017.

Philanthropic giving has been an integral part of the health-care expansion, and Kalispell Regional will tap into that generosity for the pediatric center project as well. The Flathead Valley has been supportive of the hospital ever since it began in 1910 as Kalispell General Hospital. We expect community support to be as strong as ever as the health-care corporation strives to meet the demands of a growing valley.

Beyond the bricks-and-mortar expansion, Kalispell Regional also has been on the cutting edge of adding services and programs. Consider this: since 2003 Kalispell Regional Healthcare has added a cancer treatment center, created the Winkley Women’s Center, expanded its birthing center, added the Bass Breast Center, opened the Montana Center for Wellness and Pain Management, added surgical oncology robot-assisted surgery, built the new surgical tower, launched a mobile nuclear medicine coach, added an electrophysiology lab, established the Neuroscience & Spine Institute, launched a physician residency partnership and most recently began a lung cancer screening program. The list goes on.

Also noteworthy is the recent affiliation agreement between North Valley Hospital and Kalispell Regional that aims to provide a deeper collaboration and strengthen the ability of both organizations to provide accessible and affordable health care.

And let’s not forget, because we live in scenic Northwest Montana, Kalispell Regional attracts some of the best physicians and surgeons in the world.

We can thank our lucky stars we have a regional health-care system willing to go the distance to provide the best in medical care for each and every one of us.