Article by Ashley Kavanagh, Senior Director of Recruitment & Community Development, Big Sky Economic Development
Photos courtesy of Intermountain Health, & Billings Clinic
Yellowstone County serves as a magnet for eastern Montanans and our neighbors in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming to take advantage of essential services and opportunities to enjoy retail, restaurants, and entertainment. Visitors come for financial and accounting services, to travel to and from
our airport, and to conduct business in Yellowstone County. All in, Yellowstone County serves a catchment area of 650,000. Tourism brings 2.6 million people to Yellowstone County annually, spending $621 million in our local economy.
These economic drivers work in concert to leverage Billings as the largest economy and city in the state. Two economic drivers work together to produce world-class services, national recognition, and a workforce pipeline that has made Billings a hub for medical education.
Healthcare, our largest industry, headquarters in our unique medical corridor, just beneath our signature rimrocks in Billings. It’s here that Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital and Billings Clinic serve as our largest employers and provide essential care to patients each day on neighboring campuses. Local healthcare boosts our economy and outpaces national growth rates in annual growth and average wages, with $2.8 billion in annual spending and 15,216 total employees. In a largely rural state,
patients and their families can experience award-winning services for everything from maternal health to stroke care in Billings.
Nearby, our higher education institutions are training the next generation of healthcare professionals, where as many as 80% of graduates stay locally post-graduation. Investments in the future of our healthcare workforce tailor us to be the medical education leader in Montana. We’re home to award-winning institutions like Rocky Mountain College, Montana State University Billings and City College, Montana State University College of Nursing, the first medical school in the state – Rocky Vista University Montana College of Osteopathic Medicine and future home of Rocky Vista University College of Veterinary Medicine. At these institutions, students from Montana and beyond learn the essential skills to
become clinical and administrative medical professionals.
Our higher education and healthcare institutions are making historic investments in our community. Montana State University College of Nursing will soon have a brand new, state-of-the-art building nestled between Intermountain Health and Billings Clinic. Not far away, Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital plans to make a historic investment to build a modern, state-of-the-art hospital on the site of the existing campus along North 27th Street. This new investment will elevate healthcare in our area for
future generations, building a healthier community for all served.
Billings Clinic became the first and only hospital in Montana and Wyoming to earn American College of Surgeons (ACS) verification as a Level I Trauma Center. This distinction benefits all Montanans – patients across the state can receive critical lifesaving care in Billings instead of leaving our state. Billings Clinic
has added several new operating rooms to accommodate additional surgical needs and is building Montana’s first dedicated Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) in its existing trauma tower. This 22-
bed, 21,600-square-foot unit will focus on providing intensive care to critically ill surgical patients. Additionally, Billings Clinic will create a new state-of-the-art transfer center to coordinate healthcare
needs and transfers with regional and rural healthcare facilities. It is also planning an emergency department expansion to meet the growing patient care needs of the region.
As a regional hub, we can be proud to know that on our campuses and medical corridor, faculty, students, providers, staff, nurses, and partner organizations work together each day to meet the critical needs of our region and continue to make historic investments in our community.
This article originally published in the Summer 2024 Edition of LiNK, powered by Simply Local.
