Building an ER for the 21st century

Kalispell Regional Medical Center emergency staffers are working in makeshift conditions while the hospital rebuilds its Emergency Services Department.

The first phase of the $14 million, 37,516-square-foot project involves relocating offices in order to demolish the Emergency Room waiting and triage areas to make way for upgraded patient-care rooms. The final phase will renovate the current emergency room and construct an ambulance bay.

The new emergency department is scheduled to be completed by May 2017.

Director of Emergency Services Mae Stubbs walked through a hall that stored hospital beds and supplies and opened the door to a room with beds separated by curtains.

“It really is like a scene out of an old-school hospital,” Stubbs said. “It’s a challenge, but our ER has been the most challenged space I’ve ever worked in — we’re all okay with the temporary conditions.”

She said for years, the hospital has relied on hallways as storage and rooms have been overcrowded. Since construction began, staffers have had to be creative about where to put patients — such as the annex room that houses seven patients in a former operating room.

According to the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation, the current Emergency Services footprint hasn’t changed since the department was built in 1976 — a layout created to serve 9,000 people a year when there were roughly 46,000 people living in the valley.

In 1991, the hospital converted former offices and closets into exam rooms, which created enough space to take 13,000 patients a year.

“We’re working in a space designed for a community less than half our size, but we’re getting more than 23,000 patients a year,” Stubbs said.

Jim Oliverson, vice president of Kalispell Regional Healthcare, said the new department will increase the emergency room’s total space from 8,179 square feet to 37,516.

Oliverson said the additional space will allow the department to serve between 35,000 and 40,000 patients a year, which should last the hospital for another 25 years if current population growth models are accurate.

Oliverson said the new department won’t require hiring more staff because it was designed to open throughout the day as more patients arrive.

“It’s really going to give more space to the roughly 60 people working there now, and is large enough to fit an increase of workers when our population calls for it,” Oliverson said.

He said the hospital didn’t expect to see a cost increase to operate the new emergency department other than insuring, heating and cooling the larger space, as well as buying new equipment the hospital didn’t have room for in the past.

Stubbs said she believes the new space will filter into staff and patient morale.

“When patients come to the ER, they’re in pain or worried already. Then you put them in an environment that’s so overwhelmingly noisy and crowded,” she said. “We forget because this place feels like our living room — but these changes are desperately needed for everyone.”

She said the existing trauma rooms — which treat two patients in spaces that should serve one — are too small to fit the technology and staff required for extreme cases.

The tight space also put detox rooms and sexual assault exam rooms just doors apart. She said the exams have taken place in an ordinary emergency room instead of a designated space — which placed a room out of use for hours and put the patient being tested in the most chaotic part of the hospital.

The updated layout will include new trauma rooms, form a private sexual assault testing space and create rooms for patients confronting mental illness or who are detoxing.

The new department also will expand the single nursing station into four and provide a room for staffers to sleep when they finish their shifts at 2 a.m., Stubbs said.

Tagen Vine, president of the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation, said the project is $2.1 million short of reaching its $14 million funding goal.

Vine said the hospital announced the project in 2014 with a completion goal of eight to 12 months.

“Obviously we’ve passed that mark, but we’re creating the space needed to provide care for the next 20 years,” Vine said. “When we turned toward philanthropy, we knew we were asking a lot of the Flathead Valley and that it would take time. But they’ve been amazing.”

So far, the foundation has secured $11.9 million, Vine said. The organization is expecting several gift decisions in the next few weeks that could bring it just $70,000 shy of its goal.

More than 1,350 donors have given to the project, including four $1 million pledges, according to the foundation. Roughly 120 donors gave more than $10,000 each, while 23 gave $100,000 and three gave $500,000.

For more information on the Emergency Services Center campaign, call the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation at 406-751-6767.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.