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Emergency Helicopter In Operation |
The Missoulian described the hospital this way: The hospital will have 105-patient beds including four cardiac intensive care beds and 50 private rooms. Its services will include surgical, medical, maternity, neurological, urological, psychiatric, pediatric and emergency care.
The key feature of the hospital is communications. The facility is among one of the first in the State to have a room-status system. With that system a panel of lights, one for each bed, will signal whether the bed is occupied, whether the patient is going home, whether the room needs cleaning or whether it is ready for occupancy. The admission desk will be able to tell instantly where to put a new patient. In addition, the housekeeping department will know when a room can be cleaned.
For communication between hospital personnel on call, there will be a pocket paging system. There also will be radio contact with the Forest Service and Johnson Flying Service, which will alert the hospital for emergency landings at the facility's heliport.
For the first time in a Missoula hospital, a brother or sister will be able to see a new family member before he comes home. The maternity wing on the first floor has a window wall nursery where parents, grandparents and children may push a button, tell the nurse the name of the baby and have the baby moved to the window wall for viewing.
It took 25 years of hard work, but Missoula now has one of the most modern hospital facilities in the state.
The present Community Hospital serves as a tribute to the Thornton Brothers. Nearly 70 years ago, they began a tradition of the finest possible medical care - a tradition that continues today in the Big Sky country of Western Montana.
"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity" - Hippocrates
