Community Medical Center

Community Medical Center is a 151-bed acute care facility located in Missoula, Mont. The hospital sees more than 6,500 inpatients annually and provides more than 130,000 outpatient services each year. CMC’s clinic, Community Physician Group, provides more than 100,000 patient visits annually. CMC’s medical staff includes an estimated 400 physicians and allied health professionals. CMC is Missoula County’s second-largest private employer, with about 1,200 employees and an annual payroll of $48.6 million.

CMC is a not-for-profit entity. The hospital’s responsibility and commitment to the community is extensive. Due to CMC’s non-profit status, the hospital operates a 24/7 Emergency Department. The cost of provision of care to Medicare patients is much more than the amount CMC is reimbursed by the federal government for that care. This is a gap that CMC accepts as a non-profit. The hospital has policies that ensure that those who are unable to pay for their healthcare are still able to access that healthcare. As a non-profit, CMC has supported organizations such as the Ronald McDonald House, Watson Children’s Shelter, Missoula Family YMCA, United Way and Missoula’s Suicide Prevention Task Force. CMC also works to provide health improvement events to the public, such as the Community Heart Check at Southgate Mall.

CMC’s clinic, Community Physician Group (CPG), has more than 40 providers providing specialty and primary care to patients. New providers include family practitioners and mid-level providers who practice family medicine. CPG gladly accepts Medicare and Medicaid patients, as well as most major insurance. The provision of primary care through CPG and continual recruitment of new primary care providers is important; only two percent of physicians coming out of medical school today are going into primary care. CMC has a primary care clinic on South Reserve and at Northgate Plaza on Northgate Reserve, with extended evening hours for those who are unable to keep medical appointments during the workday. Community Physician Group also has locations on the CMC campus and in Stevensville.

Much has happened in CMC’s diagnostic imaging department over the past several years. Diagnostic Imaging features a 64-slice CT Scan, the Montana Breast Health program, a new DEXA area, new radiation rooms, an upgrade in the nuclear medicine/angiography/special procedures area, remodeled changing rooms and a new waiting area.

CMC’s Emergency Department has recently been renovated and includes a pediatric room for our younger patients. The CMC ER is a Level III Trauma Center. CMC’s CareFlight air transport program has extended CMC’s market area –patients from as far as Libby, Dillon and Salmon, Idaho are transported back to CMC.

One of CMC’s core programs is pediatrics. CMC’s affiliation with Seattle Children’s Hospital strengthens and enhances the provision of pediatric healthcare services in Western Montana. These services include Western Montana’s only acute care pediatric unit and pediatric intensive care unit. CMC also features a 24/7 pediatric hospitalist program, and Montana’s only board-certified pediatric surgeon. This year, CMC has also welcomed a pediatric intensivist. CMC’s Pediatric Specialty Clinic brings to Missoula specialists from Denver, Salt Lake City and Seattle to work with children in the following areas: cleft/cranial facial, genetics, pulmonology, metabolic services, endocrinology, muscular dystrophy, nephrology, rheumatology, hematology and neurology.

CMC’s Rehabilitation Institute of Montana (RIM) is the oldest accredited rehabilitation program in the state. RIM is accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. The program features a full continuum of care and service – this care extends beyond discharge from the unit. CMC’s WORCenter assists individuals with disabilities in obtaining and maintaining work. Community Bridges is an outpatient program specializing in brain injury rehabilitation through residential and day treatment programs and outpatient multi-disciplinary therapies. CMC’s Home and Community Based Services program assists individuals with physical disabilities to live in the least restrictive environment by providing case management, education, advocacy and coordination of in-home services. Of the 15 individuals in the state certified to work with brain-injured individuals, 13 are employed at CMC.

CMC dedicates a unit specifically for orthopedics, which means orthopedic patients are not placed in a medical/surgical setting. Nurses on the orthopedic unit are orthopedic-certified. CMC’s orthopedic unit features one of the lowest lengths of stay in the nation, along with a very high rate of direct discharge to home (versus discharge to entities such as assisted living facilities or nursing homes). CMC’s innovative orthopedic pain team ensures that patients are up and walking the same day as surgery, working with therapists so that these patients heal faster and go home sooner.

CMC partners with Montana Cancer Specialists to bring oncology to the CMC campus. CMC has also partnered with Billings Clinic to bring Montana’s only gynecologic oncologist to Missoula, so that Western Montana women with gynecologic cancers do not have to leave for Spokane or Billings for their care. CMC’s new Montana Breast Health program brings the latest in technologies for patients, including digital mammography, ultrasound-guided biopsy and stereotactic biopsy. This program works to ensure a full continuum of care to breast patients. An interdisciplinary team of radiologists, pathologists, surgeons, oncologists and plastic surgeons work to incorporate their specialties for this care model. This model also includes a breast health navigator, a doctor of pharmacy, oncology-certified nurses, a licensed clinical social worker, and American Cancer Society representatives.

CMC’s Surgical Services include anesthesiology, pain management, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatric surgery, general surgery, ophthalmology, oral surgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, podiatry, urology, vascular surgery and neurosurgery. CMC recently recruited to its campus its second neurosurgeon.

CMC’s women’s and infant services include a board-certified perinatologist who works exclusively with women with high-risk pregnancies or facing roadblocks to becoming pregnant, such as women with high blood pressure or diabetes. CMC employs two board-certified neonatologists who oversee the hospital’s 15-bed Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Last year, CMC sent home with her family Baby Sasha, who was born at 22 5/7 weeks of gestation. She went home after a four and one-half month stay at CMC’s NICU, the unit’s youngest survivor to date.

CMC’s other programs also include cardiac services, including diagnostic and interventional catheterization, a wound care program, and a 24/7 adult hospitalist program. CMC is a partner in five joint ventures – Advanced Imaging, Big Sky Surgery, Missoula Sleep Medicine, the Montana Heart Center, and Partners in Home Care.
Community Medical Center
(406) 728-4100, www.communitymed.org

St. Patrick Hospital

St. Pat’s is a 237- bed hospital that includes general surgery, cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, women’s care, bariatric (weight loss) surgery, cancer radiation and chemotherapy. St. Patrick Hospital was the first facility in Montana to have a da Vinci robot, for surgeries with significantly less pain, blood loss and scaring and a much faster recovery time than with traditional surgical methods. Our imaging services includes PET, CAT and MRI. In October 2009, St. Patrick Hospital Breast Center was awarded the Three Year Full Accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers. We are the only fully accredited breast program in western Montana. Our hospital is a Breast Center of Excellence as awarded by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) administered by the American College of Surgeons. Accreditation by the NAPBC is only given to those centers that have voluntarily committed to provide the highest level of quality breast care and that undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance. St. Pat’s is affiliated with the University of Montana in cancer, heart disease and neuroscience research projects. Our Life Flight program offers rotor wing, fixed wing and ground transport for adult and pediatric medical and trauma patients. St. Pat’s is the only Level II Trauma hospital in the region, complemented by a newly redesigned Emergency Department. The hospital’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. We provide inpatient psychiatric treatment and outpatient and partial hospitalization in adolescent addiction treatment services.
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center
(406) 543-7271, www.saintpatrick.org