BILLINGS, MT, June 5 — Billings Clinic held ribbon cutting ceremonies today for the Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) and the Helmsley Regional Operations Center. The SICU is designed to elevate trauma and complex care for patients across Montana and Wyoming and the operations center will support patients and clinicians across Montana and Wyoming, enhancing communication with rural hospitals, coordinating transfers when needed and ensuring patients can return home to heal when possible.
The new Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit is the first specialized ICU of its kind in Montana with the ability to meet higher-level acute care needs of surgical patients. Additionally, the new state-of-the-art Helmsley Regional Operations Center is designed to meet the specific and complex needs of coordinating care outreach along with patient transfers throughout the region.
In 2023, Billings Clinic became Montana’s first Level I Trauma Center. To advance that program, the Billings Clinic Foundation launched a $32 million capital campaign. Earning Level I Trauma Center verification means that Billings Clinic meets the highest standards for trauma care as defined by the American College of Surgeons, with the expertise and capabilities to care for a broad range of serious and complex medical conditions.
In serving its commitment to support and grow health care in rural states like Montana and Wyoming, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust provided $12 million in grant funding to Billings Clinic’s trauma and complex care campaign. Included in that grant were $7 million for the Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit and $3.5 for the Helmsley Regional Operations Center.
“At the Helmsley Charitable Trust, we are committed to transforming rural health care, and this investment in Billings Clinic reflects that mission,” said Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “The new Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Regional Operations Center will save lives by ensuring patients across Montana and Wyoming have access to the highest level of trauma and complex care, closer to home. We are proud to support Billings Clinic’s vision to lead and innovate in rural health.”
Montana’s first dedicated SICU, on the fourth floor of the Billings Clinic Fortin Trauma Tower, is expected to begin caring for patients in the summer of 2025. This advances Billings Clinic’s work to enhance trauma, emergency and critical care in the region, keeping residents of Montana, Wyoming and the western Dakotas closer to home for care when it is needed most. Since earning Level I Trauma verification, Billings Clinic has seen an increase in trauma patients. Many of these patients will receive advanced care in the Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit, and its construction supports Billings Clinic’s commitment to providing the highest level of trauma and complex care in the region, alleviating the need for many patients to travel outside of the region for higher-level post-surgical care. The new Helmsley Surgical Intensive Care Unit is the first of its kind and provides bedside intensivists, highly trained care and support staff, specialized equipment, enhanced safety features and proximity to the Emergency Department, medical ICU and operating rooms.
The Helmsley Regional Operations Center is a comprehensive patient and clinician support center that enhances communication with rural hospitals and clinics to serve patients locally when possible. It is designed to coordinate and facilitate patient transfer if required, with a goal of returning patients closer to home for recovery while providing leadership and professional consultation to anticipate and solve future regional health care needs. The state-of-the-art Helmsley Regional Operations Center meets a myriad of needs. Sparse populations, geographical challenges, unpredictable weather and long distances between communities and hospitals make Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in Montana and Wyoming essential in providing care close to home. These facilities may not have the resources and capacity to keep patients in their home community. In those cases, transferring the patient to a higher level of care at a larger hospital like Billings Clinic becomes necessary, and the Helmsley Regional Operations Center helps to navigate those challenges with the expertise of Montana’s largest health care system.
“Billings Clinic Foundation’s successful $32 million capital campaign would not have been possible without the incredible support from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. Helmsley’s investment in rural health is making it possible for patients and families to stay closer to home for unexpected critical and complex health care needs,” said Jim Duncan, Billings Clinic Foundation President Emeritus.
Helmsley also granted $1.5 million to establish Montana’s first and only mobile extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program, which brings lifesaving care to patients in communities across Montana and has already seen a number of successful transfers. Billings Clinic’s $32 million Capital Campaign has also advanced the region’s health care landscape by supporting the construction of new surgical operating rooms, the addition of a fixed-wing aircraft for the MedFlight program, the launch of Montana’s first surgical residency rotation, and the future expansion of the Billings Clinic Emergency Department.
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About Billings Clinic
Billings Clinic and Logan Health are united as a not-for-profit, Montana-based, independent health care system focused on keeping people close to home and connecting care in communities throughout the region. The unified health system serves an area that includes most of Montana, northern Wyoming and the western Dakotas. A not-for-profit organization led by a physician CEO, Billings Clinic is governed by a board of community members, nurses and physicians. At its core, Billings Clinic is a physician-led, integrated multispecialty group practice with a 336-bed hospital and Montana’s first Level I Trauma Center. Billings Clinic is the largest trauma center and the first established and longest standing ACS-COT continually accredited trauma center in the state of Montana. Billings Clinic has more than 4,500 employees, including nearly 600 physicians and advanced practitioners offering more than 80 specialties. Billings Clinic is the first Magnet-designated health care organization in Montana and a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. More information can be found at www.billingsclinic.com.
About the Helmsley Charitable Trust
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based initiatives. Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $4.5 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $800 million to organizations and initiatives in the states of Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and two U.S. Pacific territories, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.
Media contact:
Michelle Tsai
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
347-978-3583
mtsai@helmsleytrust.org