After breaking ground a year ago, Providence St. Joseph’s new rural health clinic is swiftly taking shape on the hillside above the Polson hospital.

According to St. Joe’s Senior Philanthropy Officer Megan Beard, the $12.8 million project is “on schedule and on budget” for an opening in early October.

The new 13,000-square foot clinic, located on 17th Ave. between St. Joseph Assisted Living and the Boys and Girls Club, will dramatically expand St. Joe’s ability to provide local health care. According to Beard, the facility’s 26 exam rooms can accommodate around 7,000 additional patient visits a year.

That increase will come in part from adding a few practitioners, but largely from increased accessibility. “it’ll be easier to get in, basically,” says Beard.

The clinic will include space for primary care, behavioral health and pediatrics – all of which are currently housed in the hospital and occupy about half the space they’ll expand into at the new clinic. The additional room will be a boon for each area, but especially behavioral health, where therapists are currently seeing patients “In every nook and cranny where can fit them.”

“Plus, there’s so many windows,” Beard says, especially in contrast to the hospital clinic, which has none.

According to Beard, the clinic’s exterior will near completion by mid-August, replete with landscaping, a parking lot and sidewalks. Workers are already installing cabinets and flooring inside and will spend the final phase “getting all the workstations set up and all the tech ready to go.”

She hopes the clinic will open to patients the first week in October, with a ribbon-cutting tentatively set for Sept. 30.

ER and MRI expansion comes next

Once the clinic is complete, attention shifts to the 22-bed acute care hospital, which was last revamped in the 1990s. The emergency room will expand into the area currently occupied by the clinic and include a central nurse’s station with exam rooms radiating outward to afford more privacy to patients and practitioners.

The project will also include a state-of-the-art in-house MRI suite, replacing the tractor-trailer where patients currently receive those tests.

Phase 2 will cost an estimated $13 million, bringing the overall project price tag to $26 million; of that, Providence will pitch in about $8 million.

Visiting specialists are apt to continue seeing patients in the hospital, and the OBGYN doctors “want to stay because they need to be able to run upstairs when mom's going to labor,” Beard says.

The orthopedics team will remain in the hospital as well as the surgical department, since both need easy access to imaging.

Meanwhile, the Providence Foundation continues its $18 million fundraising campaign, which has accrued $16.4 million, thanks in part to the massive, and surprisingly speedy, philanthropic push that brought in $14 million to fuel last year’s groundbreaking and clinic construction.

“Our donors have been extremely generous with the wealth they have and have gotten us farther than we ever thought we would have gotten, and more quickly, too,” Beard says. “That was like, boom!”

A recent boost of $550,000 from the Murdock Trust also helped the foundation close in on its goal.

“Investments in rural healthcare are more important than ever as communities respond to growing needs and ensure patients do not have to travel far for life-changing care,” said Caryl Perdaems, St. Joe’s chief administrative officer. The Murdock donation “helps move this vision forward and strengthens our ability to serve the community for generations to come.”

However, the foundation still needs to raise about $1.6 million to get the entire job done, including the ER expansion and new MRI.

“We really are at the phase where we need to go out to the community and say, ‘every gift matters,’” Beard noted. “We want the whole community to be involved.”

To learn more about the fundraising effort, head to foundation.providence.org/montana/critical-access.

Sunsetting the walk-in clinic

Meanwhile, St. Joe recently closed its walk-in clinic, which had offered expanded evening and weekend hours. Instead, the clinic has significantly expanded its access to primary care services during regular clinic hours, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., while also directing patients who need after-hours care to the Express Care online option.

The Emergency Department continues to offer 24/7 care for those suffering from critical illness or injury.

Perdaems explained that the walk-in clinic has always offered same-day primary care rather than urgent care. However, she said about 25% of the patients seen in the walk-in clinic ultimately required the higher level of care offered in the Emergency Department.

To better meet the needs of patients who don’t require emergency care, St. Joe’s has expanded its clinic capacity by approximately 25%–30%, increasing the number of daily appointments now available for patients in family medicine and pediatrics.

For those who still need after-hours or weekend care, virtual visits are available 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily from a Providence provider via Express Care (virtual.providence.org); no appointment is needed.

“We also offer a nurse triage line after hours to help patients determine whether their condition requires immediate attention or can wait for a visit with their usual provider,” Pardaems said.

“It is our desire to help ease each patient’s way by helping navigate healthcare,” she added. “It can be complicated.”