Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital unveils new Critical Care Unit

After two years and thousands of dollars worth of work, Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital announced in a press release on Monday, Sept. 14, that they were ready to begin welcoming new patients into the brand new Patient Care Tower and Critical Care Unit. The Caring Forward Campaign, launched by Bozeman Health, financed the project and sourced funding from several generous donors and community members.

The campaign far surpassed its original goal of securing $15 million for the new critical care unit and in the end, nearly $18 million was raised. Money that was raised and not spent for the Critical Care Unit was used to finance other improvements in the Bozeman Health system, such as the expansion of the Big Sky Medical Center and the purchase of new cancer treatment equipment.

The hospital built 20 intensive-care rooms in the new Patient Care Tower’s critical care unit. According to the press release, “We’re proud that our new Critical Care Unit features 20 beds that can be used for intensive or progressive care and that each room is three times the size of our prior ICU rooms. This space ensures our teams can effectively work together, move equipment around easily and bring in other team members and equipment as needed.”

Eight of the new rooms have been designated as isolation rooms for infectious diseases. Originally, only three of the 20 ICU rooms were designed to also serve as isolation rooms, as the design was finalized well before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the pandemic worsened, the plans were altered to add five more rooms equipped to be isolation rooms aligned with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standards.

The upgrade to include isolation rooms is vital right now. According to the press release, “...in the midst of a pandemic, when access to healthcare can be critically important, the crucial timing of additional and upgraded ICU capacity coming online allows Bozeman Health and our care teams to have the space, resources and appropriate settings to expertly care for our sickest patients.”

In addition to the new and improved rooms, the building also includes four new nurses’ stations, a private consultation room, family waiting rooms, lounges and a team room used for meetings and in-services. As of now, the ICU is also being used as a progressive care unit, where patient care and monitoring are not as urgent as they would be in an intensive care unit. The space serves as a place for patients whose conditions are too complex for care on the typical hospital floor.

“This critical care tower started as a dream by members of our care team and this dream could not have been realized alone without the support of our great community,” said John Hill, president and CEO of Bozeman Health, during an interview with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and Gallatin County enters what has been referred to as a “third surge” of coronavirus cases, with 66 new cases reported out of MSU in the past week, the new critical care unit is a major step toward improving quality healthcare access for Bozeman residents.