Livingston Health Care Commemorative Edition 2015

Livingston HealthCare
For The Future

Inside:
Building against the wind Page 5
Hospital history Page 7
A room by room tour Page 9
High-tech hospital Page 12
The new lab Page 21
The new cafeteria Page 22
And more ...
A publication of The Livingston Enterprise
Page 2
I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015
Page 3
Enterprise photo by Hunter DAntuono
TJ Fletchall of Cashman Nursery & Landscaping sweeps up dust after landscaping around the Livingston HealthCare entrance sign on Oct. 5.
Welcome to the future of Livingston HealthCare

The future of health care in Park County is here.
The new Livingston HealthCare facility
opens next week and will operate as a
medical campus with services offered at
a state-of-the-art facility.
Construction of the new 125,000-squarefoot facility, located at 320 Alpenglow
Lane, has been compared to the railroad
setting up shop here in the 1880s.
The $43.5-million hospital and clinic
facility marks the largest investment in
Park County in recent memory, and all
residents should take pride in this commitment to our community.
The Livingston Enterprise published
this special edition to celebrate the open-
ing of the new Livingston HealthCare

campus.
The subsequent pages tell the story of
the history of health care in Park County
while also featuring the new facility,
those who built it and those who will
work inside its walls in the coming
years.
Area residents have taken a special
interest in the new facility throughout its
construction, and more than 1,000 people
attended an Oct. 10 grand opening of the
new 25-bed critical access hospital.
The new hospital features a Level IV
community trauma emergency department, multi-disciplinary physician clinic,
surgery, ICU, lab services, administra-
tive offices, imaging, a womens center,

sleep center, home care, hospice care,
orthopedics, rehabilitation services and
labor and delivery.
The new hospital officially opens on
Oct. 27, and this special edition offers
readers a detailed look at what to expect
when visiting the new Livingston HealthCare.
A big kudos to LHC officials and medical staff, to the hard-working construction employees and to Park County residents, all of whom worked together to
make a dream come true.
This is Livingston HealthCare for the
future.
The Livingston Enterprise
Page 4
Tear off of existing roof systems

Custom Metal Fabrication and
installation for siding, trims,
gutters and roofing including
copper and various steel
products
Installation of standing metal
seam panel systems including
SnapLock and mechanical lock
systems
Tuff Rib and corrugated steel
panel systems
Phone: 223-0742
Single-ply membrane systems

including EPDM, TPO and PVC
BUR repairs involving modified/
torch down roofing and coatings
including Elastomeric
Cedar Shake installation
Slate, Tile and composite roofing
including DaVinci Roofscapes
installation
Shingle installation including
granulated steel shingles
Zinc counter tops and sinks
Fax: 222-0182
Page 5
Through brutal wind, cold and snow,

a beautiful structure emerges
By Dwight Harriman
Enterprise Staff Writer
ver tried to build a hospital in the Livingston wind?

It can be done, but you might have to buy
lots of goggles and straw bales to pull it off.
Jeff Halsey, job superintendent for Swank Enterprises, the general contractor that built the new Livingston HealthCare facility east of Livingston, said
one of the biggest challenges of the project, which
began November 2013, was dealing with the infamous local wind.
It was brutal, Halsey said during a recent interview at his work site office trailer.
The gales kicked up so much snow and dust it
impeded his workers.
They couldnt see because of the wind, he said.
So he did what any smart job superintendent
would do he bought them ski goggles.
And not just that.
I bought 80 big square straw bales and I stacked
them three high I followed my crew around with
that wind break as they worked, he said.
Any time they saw semi-truck traffic being
rerouted through town, we knew it was going to be
a tough day, Halsey said.
You could never let your guard down out here
about your stuff, he added. Nothing that weighed
less than 80 pounds could be left alone.
And it wasnt just the wind. There was the snow
and cold to contend with.
He said the winter they put in the hospitals foundation 2013-14 was the snowiest on record.
Sometimes the cold shut things down entirely.
Halseys work log for Nov. 21, 2013, reads: Nothing
today too damn cold.
ABOVE: Shown is the job scene of the new hospital

on Feb. 26 of this year. Bitter cold and wind made
getting work done a challenge.
A pretty building
LEFT: Jeff Halsey, job superintendent for Swank

Enterprises, the general contractor that built the
new Livingston HealthCare facility, is pictured in
front of the nearly completed new hospital in early
October.
On the other side of it, one of the things Halsey

said he enjoyed the most about the project was creating such a beautiful building with an abundance of
brick and stone in the design.
I havent worked on a building this pretty in a
long, long time, he said.
We just dont get to work with this much stone
and brick ever its a pretty building, he reiterated.
Asked what he thought was the neatest part of the
building, he didnt hesitate.
Oh, the lobby, of course, he said of the expansive
atrium that features abundant light, two fireplaces
and a beautifully designed, broad stairway leading
to the second floor.
But he also loves the working end of the new hospital campus. For him the most impressive room in
that sense is the main equipment room dubbed the
penthouse, which contains the HVAC equipment
heating, ventilation and air conditioning along
with the boilers and well pumps.
Job commitment
Halsey, who hails originally from Indiana, lives in

Whitefish. During the hospital job, he went home
every weekend, but while here put in 10- to 12-hour
days.
I eat, sleep and drink these jobs, he said. Its
my mission to do what Im told to do.
And a big job it was. At the peak of the work,
there were 90 to 110 employees working for 20 to 30
Enterprise photo by Dwight Harriman
subcontractors, Halsey said.

Perhaps thats why the thing he is most proud of is
that, in the two years it took to build the new hospital, no one got hurt.
Everybody went home to their family every
night, he said.
Working together
Halsey expressed appreciation for the good work
done by local workers on his force; the local motels

and vendors who were more than happy to help us,
which was really cool; and hospital personnel who
teamed up with him.
The folks that we worked with were all fantastic, the superintendent said. We worked together
as a team to solve problems, and thats a big deal.
Those thoughts were echoed by LHC CEO Bren
Lowe.
It was truly a partnership of give and take and
working things out together, Lowe said of working
with Swank and Halsey.
Because of that, project costs were held to about
$220 per square foot, which Lowe said is unheard of
elsewhere, citing a national average of about $320
per square foot for similar medical projects.
Lowe said LHC chose Swank and Halsey because
of their experience in health care projects, saying
the entire company is experienced, organized and
efficient.
Its been a pleasure to work with him, Lowe said
of Halsey.
Page 6
general contractors
We are proud to serve as the general contractor

for this outstanding addition
to Park County.
Building Montana Dreams

for over 50 Years
Kalispell Office
750 West Reserve Dr.
Kalispell, MT 59901
Phone: (406) 752-5411

Fax: (406) 750-8765
Website:
www.swankenterprises.com
Page 7
Enterprise file photo
This undated photo shows the original Park Hospital on Third Street, which now serves as the Frontier Retirement Home.
Livingstons long history with health care

By Thomas E. Watson
ealth care has always been

an integral part of Livingstons history. In the 19th
century and even into the
early 20th century, hot springs were
sought out to ease peoples pain.
The first-ever hospital in the Livingston area opened in 1910 at Chico
Hot Springs. An article from that period in The Livingston Enterprise said
the climate alone insures a restoration of rugged strength and physical
soundness, but is supplemented by
medical care in cases where treatment
is required.
First Livingston Hospital
Livingston got its own hospital a few

years later. In March of 1913, Dr.
George A. Windsor founded the first
hospital in Livingston. The hospital
was a two-story brick building on
Third Street that now serves as the
Frontier Retirement Home.
Windsor boasted that his hospital,
which had 40 rooms, was magnificent
and modernly equipped ranking
second to none in the state of Montana.
Some of that modern equipment
included X-ray machines and operating rooms. The biggest point of pride,
Enterprise file photo
This photo taken in the 1890s shows the Lott Hospital on the corner of Callender and Yellowstone streets when it was still used as a residence.
however, for Windsor and the Park
Hospital was the maternity ward.
Windsor was a big proponent for womens health.
The sooner women learn that
trained assistance and adequate equip-
ment is absolutely essential to good

results in obstetrical cases, the sooner
will our womanhood be relieved of a
vast amount of unnecessary suffering.
Incidentally, as a matter of dollars
and cents, the institutional care of
obstetrical cases is not only better, but

cheaper.
The Park Hospital was not Livingstons only hospital, however.
In 1928, Edith Lott who had been
an employee at Park Hospital
opened the Lott Hospital in the white
mansion on the corner of Callender
and Yellowstone streets. The house
was built in the 1800s as a family
home.
Lott opened the hospital with the
help of Dr. George Townsend, who had
previously worked at the hospital at
Chico Hot Springs.
Lott is closely tied with health care
in Livingston. She moved to Livingston after receiving her nursing degree
in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
After working at the Park Hospital
and starting her own, Lott finished her
career as a manager of the Pioneer
Rest Home and retired in 1958.
She died at age 93 in November of
1981.
The Lott Hospital was sold to Josephine Merrell for $30,000 in 1946, who
said she purchased the building as an
investment.
She remodeled the home then sold it
to Drs. Robert E. Walker and William
E. Harris for $40,000.
See History, Page 13
Page 8
Congratulations
on your new
RESTAURANT SUPPLY & KITCHEN DESIGN

Public Welcome
gem of a facility.
114 West Lewis Street
222-1413
Congratulations
Livingston
HealthCare!
Bravo!
The Livingston HealthCare

facility is state-of-the-art.
Staff members and patients can feel safe
and secure because the fire suppression
system is also state-of-the-art.
We were proud to have installed it.
Danna Lawellin
Alice Senter
Annemarie Quinto
Milee Morrison
See us for all your insurance needs.

Locally owned & operated.
Big Timber Office
100 McLeod P.O. Box 1609
Big Timber
Office: 406-932-4014
Fax: 406-932-4210
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Livingston Office
123 W. Lewis
Livingston
Office: 406-222-0944
Fax: 406-222-0946
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Page 9
The new face of LHC:

A room-by-room tour
By Hunter DAntuono
n Oct. 10, during the open

house and ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Livingston
HealthCare hospital, Victor
Robbins, vice president of First Interstate Bank Commercial Loan Department, said the new facility is the biggest thing to happen in Livingston since
the railroad came to town in the 1880s.
At 125,000 square feet, the new building is no doubt an impressive collaborative feat of construction.
But whats bigger is the impact the
new facility will have on the quality of
health care services for Park County
residents and neighboring areas.
With the exception of the Shields Valley Clinic in Wilsall and UrgentCare in
southern Livingston, the new building
brings all of Livingston HealthCares
services together in a single structure
at 320 Alpenglow Lane, just east of
town.
Everyone is under one roof, said
Livingston HealthCare CEO Bren
Lowe, on a tour of the facility with The
Livingston Enterprise a couple of days
before the open house, Its a one-stop
shop.
THE OUTSIDE
Large windows fill every facet of the

outside of the building to take advantage of views of the Absaroka and the
Crazy mountain ranges. The walls are
composed of red bricks and gray stonework. The roof line is punctuated by a
series of dormers on the pitched, black
shingled-roof.
Its a hospital, a clinic, but we dont
want it to look that way, said Lowe.
We want it to look warm and inviting.
We wanted it to fit Livingston. It has to
compliment the beauty around it.
All parking in the front of the building is reserved for patients and visitors, while a separate lot around back
accommodates the staff.
Tall LED lamps in the parking areas
will ensure plenty of light after sundown. All sidewalks encircling the
building are curbless, to reduce tripping hazards and make wheeling in and
out of the facility easier.
The anchoring architectural element
is a broad wooden arch over the main
entrance.
The arch design was inspired by The
Gardiner Gateway Arch and Park
Countys legacy as the original pathway
to Yellowstone.
Mitch Goplen, Billings Clinic Vice
President of Facility Services, said
LHCs new hospital has a much lower
than average cost-per-square foot than
other health care facilities at $208 a
square foot, noting the average cost for
Enterprise photos by Hunter DAntuono
One of Livingston HealthCares 25 patient rooms is pictured at the new hospital, complete with large windows and
more space for loved ones to visit any time of day.
a new hospital is around $320 a square
foot.
FIRST FLOOR
A driving force behind the interior

layout of the hospital was ensuring
patients and visitors alike wouldnt lose
their way in the large facility.
Hospitals and clinics are stereotypically notoriously difficult to navigate,
said Lowe, so a lot of thought was put
into an easily navigable floor plan.
The Glynna W. Freeman atrium is the
first space a visitor sees through the
main entrance. Enormous Russell Chatham paintings on loan from the Museum of the Rockies adorn the walls of
the atrium.
The vast majority of the art adorning the building is by local artists, said
Lowe.
A cozy corner with a fireplace also
occupies the front lobby area. All colors inside the building are earth tones,
from the floors, to the walls to the furnishing, which create a warm, healthy
and inviting, feel, said Lowe.
The lobby offers a convenient, centralized patient registration area for all
hospital services, with financial counselors offices adjacent to the registration desks.
Public spaces and waiting rooms,
with the exception of the dining area at
the back of the building, run the length
of the front side of the building, making
it easy to access any first-floor medical
area by walking one of two directions.The waiting areas are illuminated
by large amounts of natural light and
feature chairs of differing heights, to
accommodate a range of physical abilities.
The second-floor surgery waiting area features a double-sided fireplace.

A hall from the lobby leading to the
back of the hospital connects to a second atrium holding a spacious and
bright dining area, complete with buffet-style food counters. An opening in
the wall reveals the kitchen.
The West Crawford and River Drive
clinics are combined into one expansiveunit on the first floor with 34 exam
rooms. In the clinic area, all the exam
rooms are grouped together, with physician offices situated at the back of the
building, but still immediately adjacent
to where doctors will be examining
patients.
Physical proximity helps with com-
munication, said Lowe of the clinic

areas layout.
The main hallway through the clinic
area is marked with a different design
pattern on the floor again, for easy
navigation. The other side of the building features an expanded lab, a cardiopulmonary unit for heart and lung
patients and a Womens Center, which
features larger rooms for mammography and ultrasounds. A sub-waiting
area within the center increases comfort and privacy for female patients.
See Tour, Page 11
Page 10
Congratulations!
The new Livingston HealthCare campus is

something we can all be proud of.
The quality and the extent of health care in a community is crucial to the residents of that community. It is often a deciding factor in a familys decision to relocate to a new location or for a family to stay in a certain location. Park County can now boast a state-of-the-art health
care campus that would make anyone confident about calling this area home. Their friends and relatives will be well served should a health
issue arise.
Congratulations from our Pharmacy Staff

We are proud of our dedicated pharmacists and the role they play in our community.
Now that we are a compounding pharmacy, our pharmacists can serve you at an even higher level.
Mike
Schaub
Jessica
Gravatt
Pharm D, RPh
Pharmacy
Manager
Pharm D,
RPh
Kathy
Higgins
RPh
Chris
Taylor
RPh
1313 W. Park Livingston 222-7332
Leah Miller
Head Pharm. Tech
Sheri Queen
Pharm. Tech
Melissa King
Pharm. Tech
Sylvy Wilson
Pharm. Tech
Charles Vondra Allison Atherton

Pharm. Tech
Pharm. Tech
We were pleased
to bring beauty to the
campus.
At Cashman Nursery, our
business is making a customers
property look cheery
and inviting.
We were proud to be chosen to
help make the new Livingston
HealthCare campus grounds a
thing of beauty.
North 19th at Springhill Road
587-3406 www.cashmannursery.com
Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Page 11
Co ngratulatio ns
Livingston Healthcare
on their new home!
A sweeping staircase connects the spacious first-floor lobby to the second

floor of the new LHC hospital.
It feels so good to be home!
Tour, from Page 9

EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT
Patients bound for the emergency

room no longer need be exposed to the
elements as they are unloaded from
the ambulance, as the hospital
includes a dedicated ambulance
garage.
Adjacent to the ambulance garage is
a decontamination room with shower
heads and hoses, in the event a patient
needs to be rinsed of toxic chemical
agents before being moved further
through the building.
Two trauma rooms occupy the space
one small, and one large. The latter
is designed to accommodate any needed medical equipmentfor someone
who is in really bad shape, said Lowe.
The emergency department contains
six exam rooms, one of which is a
safe-hold room, designed to prevent
a patient attempting to inflict selfharm from doing so.
SECOND FLOOR
A sweeping staircase leading from

the lobby takes visitors to the second
level.
Twenty-five patient rooms cover a
large portion of the upper floor. Massive windows in every room let sunlight spill in and provide picturesque
views of the Absarokas and Crazy
mountain ranges.
Lowe said the rooms are fifty-percent larger than what two of the old
hospitals patient rooms combined,
which means plenty of space for loved
ones to gather around. With no set visitor hours, friends and family can
come see an in-patient any hour of the
day.
Couches in the patient rooms convert into beds. A wardrobe is also
available.Big TVs feature over 100
cable channels and the remote doubles
as a nurse-call button.
Patient lifts can transport a patient

from their bed to the bathroom, making moving around the room safer for
both the patient and hospital staff.
The Family Birth Center provides
two cozy birthing rooms and two postpartum rooms.Large bath tubs fill the
bathrooms of the delivery rooms and
elongated sinks specifically designed
for bathing a newborn grace the countertops.
One patient room is a negative pressure room, designed to eliminate risk
of infection from a patient diagnosed
with a contagious airborne disease
such as tuberculosis or Ebola.
Two intensive care units are also
available for patients in critical condition.
A pair of operating rooms feature
state-of-the-art boom systems, which
keep lights and equipment off the
floor, decluttering the space and
allowing staff to work more efficiently. Refraction technology in the overhead operating room lights are
improved to the point where surgeons
hands dont even cast a shadow on the
patient.
Multiple flatscreens mounted to the
walls and the booms can instantly display anything a doctor needs to see,
whether its an enlarged view from a
scope feed or a copy of a patients
medical records.
After surgery, each patient can
expect the privacy and comfort of
their own recovery room.
Clear on the other side of the second
floor is an expansive outpatient rehabilitation area, with spaces for physical therapy, cardiac and pediatric
rehabilitation.
The exercise equipment in the outpatient area will be made available to
hospital staff for their own physical
fitness needs outside of patient hours.
Everywhere you look when you visit us, youll see little
touches that provide comfort and easy access for our seniors. Pair this with high-quality care, activities, and homecooked meals and Caslen Living Center is the first choice
for Assisted Living in the Park County area.
1301 Wineglass Lane, off North N Street, Livingston

Phone 222-0797 www.caslenlc.com
Page 12
New digs, new technology at Livingston HealthCare
By Hunter DAntuono
ivingston Healthcares new

facility is a 21st-century hospital, not only because of the
state-of-the-art medical technology housed within it, but the building itself is engineered for the future.
Much of the large medical equipment, or the big heavies, as Livingston HealthCares lead biomedical engineer, Bill Bryce, likes to call them,
wont be moved from the old facility
until just before the new hospital is
open for business on Oct. 27. However,
plenty of brand new medical technology comes as part of the new building.
The buildings two operating rooms
and trauma bays feature state-of-theart boom systems, which keep lights
and equipment off the floor, de-cluttering the space and allowing staff to
work more efficiently. Refraction
technology in the overhead operating
room lights are improved to the point
where surgeons hands dont even cast
a shadow on the patient.
Multiple flatscreens mounted to the
walls and the booms can instantly display anything a doctor needs to see,
whether its an enlarged view from a
scope feed or a copy of a patients
medical records.
The hospital features an improved
photographers to instantly view their

images, versus the lag time inherent to
processing film.
A pneumatic tube system, not unlike
the ones used at drive-thru bank tellers, allows staff to swiftly transport
small items, such as blood samples, up
to 20 mph throughout the hospital.
Five tube stations are located in key
departments.
It sounds like a cannon when it goes
off, joked Bryce.
The system saves time by reducing
how often personnel must hand-deliver
time-sensitive samples between farflung sections of the building.
SECURITY
A state-of-the-art boom system holding operating lights and flatscreen monitors is pictured in one of the hospitals new operating rooms on Oct. 10.
pair of decontamination rooms for
sterilizing medical instruments. The
two rooms are linked by a doubledoored instrument cleaning machine.
Dirty instruments enter one side and
come out clean on the other.
At the end of the day, its like a dish-
washer on steroids, Bryce quipped.

New X-ray equipment in the imaging
department utilizes digital radiography or direct capture technology.
X-rays can appear on screen immediately after being shot, much like the
way modern digital cameras allow
Advanced security technologies are

also weaved throughout the facility.
Weve upgraded security across the
board, said Bryce.
Security cameras continually monitor all critical areas inside the building and out, and doors to medical areas
are secured by a badge-access system.
Hospital staff will carry badges that,
when held up to a sensor, unlock doors.
Every badge is assigned a unique number, so every entry is recorded.
Were trying to get away from this,
said Bryce, fishing a chock-full key
ring from his pocket.
See New digs, Page 15
We were proud to install the plumbing

for the new
Livingston HealthCare facility.
P 587-0969 F 585-9458 willplumb.com Bozeman
Page 13
History, from Page 7

The Lott Hospital stayed in operation
until Feb. 28, 1955 when 14 patients
were moved by ambulance to the new
Livingston Memorial Hospital, which
opened on the same day. In 1957, the
Park Hospital became the Park Clinic.
The clinic is now in the Edgewater
building on River Drive.
New Age in health care
Livingston Memorial Hospital has

been the towns sole health care provider for the last 60 years.
After the Lott Hospital closed in 1955
and the Park Hospital became the Park
Clinic a few years later, Livingston
Memorial Hospital has provided for
patients since Katherine Lloyd of Butte
had surgery the morning of Feb. 28 to
become the hospitals first patient.
When the hospital opened in 1955
times were different, and rates were
unfathomable in todays financial climate.
A bed in a four-bed ward cost $9 and a
bed in semi-private rooms rooms with
two beds cost $11. There were also
options for single rooms, where a standard single room went for $12.50 and a
single room with a bathroom cost $15. A
Feb. 24, 1955 article in the Livingston
Enterprise also reported that, two telephone lines (had) been installed at the
hospital. The numbers are 112 and 113.
In operation for 60 years, Livingston
Memorial Hospital has tried to stay on

the leading edge of medicine for
decades. In 1980, the hospital became
the first health care facility in Montana
to use a real-time ultra sound
machine. Then again in 1996, the hospital added a true spiral CT-Scan, and
again, that was the first machine of its
kind to be used in Montana.
In 1998, Livingston Memorial Hospital
merged with the original health care
provider in Livingston, the Park Clinic
(which started as the Park Hospital) to
expand their services, officially changing its name from Livingston Memorial
Hospital to Livingston HealthCare.
The need to expand their services has
greatly increased over the last decade
or more, leading to the construction of a
new building that could house all of the
hospitals services under one roof.
The new hospital
Executives at Livingston HealthCare

realized the need for expansion and
hired a consulting firm in 2003, and 12
years of hard work are about to pay off.
It is so rewarding. It is an amazing
feeling, Livingston HealthCare Board
of Directors Chairperson Michelle
Becker said. Thereve been a lot of
challenges along the way, but the
reward of going through all of this is
fantastic. Its going to be wonderful for
this community. Its an amazing feeling.
Its hard to articulate.
See History, Page 14
Congratulations
l
h
to
ivingston
ealthcare
Your new facilitY is

something we can all
be proud of.
Huppert, SwindleHurSt, & woodruff, p.C.

law offices
420 s. second st. | livingston | (406) 222-2023

joc@hswlegal.com
| steve@hswlegal.com
Historical Timeline
1910: Percie Knowles, the owner of
Chico Hot Springs Hotel, transforms
the building into a medical facility.
1913: Park Hospital was founded in
Livingston.
1928: Edith Lott founded the Lott
Hospital on the corner of Callender
Street and Yellowstone Street.
1946: Josephine Merrell buys the
Lott Hospital Building for $30,000.
She did extensive renovations to the
building, then sold it to Drs. Robert
Walker and William Harris for
$40,000.
1955: Livingston Memorial Hospital
opens on Feb. 28, 1955 with 14
patients transferred from Lott Hospital to the new, 55-bed facility.
became not-for-profit.
1980: The hospital added the first
real-time ultrasound machine in
the state of Montana.
merged with Park Clinic and began

employing physicians.
1998: Wayne and Rosalene Peterson
bequeath 29 acres of land, which the
hospital sold and used funds to help
build a new hospital building.
2001: Received Critical Access
Hospital (CAH) designation from
federal government and changed
name to Livingston HealthCare.
2002: Livingston HealthCare signed
a management services agreement
with Billings Clinic.
2003: Consulting firm hired to help
determine future needs of Livingston HealthCare.
2007: The Ted and Georgeann Watson family announced their intent to
donate a 20-acre parcel of land on
the east side of town to be used for a
new health care facility.
2013: Broke ground on new hospital
facility.
Oct. 27, 2015: New Livingston
HealthCare hospital opens.
Page 14
History, from Page 13
This is a game-changer
for Livingston.
- Michelle Becker,
Livingston HealthCare Board of Directors Chairwoman
This is a game-changer for Livingston. We
already have a tremendous community here and
such a draw. People who could live anywhere live
here, and so when you look at what this new medical campus is going to do for opportunities for
growth we are in the process of interviewing
for our cardiologist. This will be the first time in
the history of Livingston that weve had a full
time cardiologist employed right here.
The process of getting this game-changing
hospital built started with the acquisition of
lands.
Wayne and Rosalene Peterson bequeathed 29
acres of land to the hospital, but that ended up not
being the site of the new building.
That land is over by the armory, which is now
known as Ridge View Trails subdivision, Becker
said. That 29 acres, although it would have been
ample in size and very usable for us, the location
being on the opposite side of the railroad tracks
from the main arteries of I-90 and Highway 89
South, we felt like that was not the location we
should use for our new facilities.
The hospital sold those lands and dedicated the
money to be used toward the new building, and in
2007, Ted and Georgeann Watson

came to the rescue. They not only
donated a 20-acre parcel of land on
the east side of town to be used for
the new facility, but they also
allowed the hospital to pick out
which 20-acre parcel would suit
them best.
We had to make certain we were
outside of the 500-year flood plain,
said Becker.
It opened up another opportunity
and made it so we had something
firm to work with.
Without the Watsons donation, the
new hospital would still be years
away.
Instead, because of their generosity, Livingston now has a new hospital.
RIGHT: Pictured is Dr. George A.

Windsor, who founded Livingstons
first hospital in March 1913.
Congratulations
to Livingston HealthCare
Your new facility is an impressive asset
to the community.
Your foresight and your perseverance have led to
a state-of-the-art health care campus that
every resident of this area would feel confident in
when receiving medical care here.
Congratulations on a job well done.
From all of us at
A tip of the hat to

Livingston
Healthcare
Your new facility will ensure that
our residents, and everyone in
Park County, will receive state of
the art medical care.
Congratulations!
DiAmonD K LoDge
A trusted title company since 1983
504 E. Callender
222-3037
Where your family is ours

1200 W. montana | 222-0605 | www.dklodge.com
Page 15
New digs, from Page 12

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Nursing and other direct-care staff

will enjoy the convenience of proprietary smartphone-like devices, which
will allow them to text and call each
other and their patients from wherever they might be.
Its making a mobile workforce
more mobile, said Bryce.
Over a dozen COWS or computers
on wheels, will also be utilized by
staff around the building. A Wifi network also reaches every nook for convenient Internet access. Massive bundles of cords streaming from towers of
servers in the Information Systems
department keep all systems interconnected.
Its a highly integrated building,
said John Hetland, Construction Manager for the architecture and engineering firm on the hospital project.
ENERGY
The third floor of the building or,

The Penthouse as Bryce termed it,
serves as central command for a
wealth of energy-saving technology.

A geothermal energy system will
cool the building.
Groundwater, which hovers around
52 degrees, is pumped from a well,
after which its used to fill coils that
chill air in the duct system. The geothermal is also used to cool the hospitals MRI machine, which produces
tons of heat through its operation.
At an annual energy-savings cost of
$100,000, Hetland anticipates a threeyear return investment on the geothermal system.
Natural gas, meanwhile, is the buildings primary heating agent.
Motion sensors and timers on the
lighting throughout the building
ensure electricity conservation.
Thanks to motion sensors, even the
brightness of the low-energy LED
parking lot lamps only increase when a
car or pedestrian passes beneath them.
This has been future-proofed where
possible, said Bryce of the new facility. We were really at critical mass in
the building we were at.
Congratulations
on the opening
of your beautiful
new location!
ALSO IN TECH: NEW MRI

By Hunter DAntuono
A key piece of technology

improving Livingston HealthCare
services is a new Siemens MRI
scanner.
With a price tag of about $1.2
million dollars, the machine is, by a
large margin, the most expensive
piece of equipment in the building,
said Livingston HealthCare CEO
Bren Lowe.
This puts you on par with a university hospital as far as imaging,
added Lucas Thompson, an application specialist for the MRI unit.
The machine features enhanced
image quality, faster image acquisition and a user-friendly software
interface.
Greg Christianson, an LHC radiology technologist, who specializes
in magnetic resonance, marveled
at the image quality during a training session with the new device
Wednesday afternoon.
The opening, or bore of the
machine is larger, making it more
comfortable for patients undergoing a scan. Patients can also have
their favorite playlist played
from their smartphone over
speakers in the MRI room. The
machine, when in operation, is
also 70 percent quieter than the
hospitals current machine, said
Laura Caes, Imaging Services
Manager for LHC.
Caes said the MRI machine is the
largest addition to her department
and LHCs partnership with Billings Clinic will only expand the
scope of studies they can provide.
Its a top of the line MRI system, Caes said. Im excited about
the additional studies we can provide the community.
Livingston HealthCares new Siemens MRI scanner is pictured on Oct. 8
406-222-2531 | Franzen-Davis.com
Box 683 | livingston, Mt 59047
Page 16
Moving patients on Move In Day

By Liz Kearney
gency Services director Greg Coleman will be

leading a crew that will be observing the move as
if it were a practice evacuation drill.
Hell time us, watch us, see if everyone knows
here may be bigger objects to move, but
their roles and if they have the tools they need,
the most important are the patients LivKoby said, and then there will be a debriefing
ingston HealthCare will be caring for as
to see what went well and areas that could have
they prepare for their official Oct. 27
been improved.
moving day.
Patients will be wheeled in their beds to the
Director of Nursing Lori Koby is in charge of
ambulance loading dock, transferred to the gurmoving any patients who may have stayed overney, then driven to the new hospital. Once there, a
night in the 13th Street hospital the night of Oct.
waiting nurse will perform a quick assessment,
26. And while elective surgeries will not be schedand the patients will be moved to their new
uled immediately prior to the move, theres still a
rooms. To facilitate the move, visitors wont be
chance there will be between five and 10 patients
allowed at Alpenglow Lane until 10 a.m., Koby
in house, Koby said, especially if any expectant
said.
mothers go into labor in the days before the
For a few hours at least, LHC will be doubled up
move.
in departments. The old Emergency Room will be
And Mary Boyd, Family Birth Center Manager,
kept open Tuesday morning, and the lab may be
said she does have a few moms due around Oct.
27. Koby, who has been LHCs Director of NursBefore patients are moved, LHC stocked its new hospi- needed, so it will remain in place, too.
At the end of the move, staff will place large
ing since January, actually has had not one but
tals warehouse with medical supplies. LHCs David Lichtwo previous hospital moves in her career, one in
te is pictured organizing supplies inside the warehouse signs outside the newly-emptied former LHC
building to direct people to the new hospital.
Washington and another in Oregon.
on Oct. 11.
Signs on Interstate 90 will be changed, and the
The LHC move is going to be easier, she said,
signage in town as well.
because there will be brand new beds at the new
The patients will be moved according to two facKoby, whose nursing background is in trauma
facility in previous moves Koby has been
tors, Koby said acuity, or how serious the condinursing, is taking the move in stride. She said the
involved in, an extra leg of the move included movtion is, and by nurse, so that one nurse doesnt
more chaotic a situation becomes, the calmer she
ing empty hospital beds, setting them up, and then
receive all his or her patients at one time.
gets. She said LHC has employees who have never
moving patients and repeating the process until all
Five area emergency service providers have volworked anywhere but in the old hospital, and some
the beds were moved. Staff have been working on
unteered ambulances. They are the Livingston City
are a little anxious about working in a new building.
the moves components for more than a year, Koby
Fire and Rescue, Paradise Valley Fire and EMS,
And student nurses from Montana State Universisaid, and heres the plan for Tuesday morning: The
Gardiner Volunteer Fire and Ambulance, Yellowty will be on hand to observe, too, for educational
patient-moving staff will meet in the old cafeteria at stone National Park, and the Big Timber Volunteer
purposes.
5 a.m. The night shift will remain on shift at the old
Fire Department, Koby said.
After all, how often does a hospital move? Koby
hospital, and the day shift will report to Alpenglow
In addition, to make the most of a potential trainsaid.
Lane, ready to receive the patients.
ing opportunity, Park Countys Disaster and Emer-
Were proud to be a part of this

Commemorative Edition
And we congratulate Livingston HealthCare
on the state-of-the-art facility.
Your new campus is something every

Park County resident can be proud of.
With the new facility, health care for the 21st Century
has become a reality for community members.
206 East Callender St Livingston (406) 222-0362

www.amtitlemontana.com
Congratulations
to
Livingston
HealthCare
on the opening of this
State-of-the-Art Facility.
Granite Technology Solutions
is proud to be a part of this project,
providing the low voltage
and fiber backbone for
the new hospital.
www.granite.tech
406-585-0550
Page 17
Dozens of contractors worked on the new hospital

By Samantha Hill
any people are unaware of the pieces that

go into to making a building as large and
grand and LHCs new hospital.
There were 45 contractors and subcontractors on the project, including six from the Midwest and the Northwest, ranging in specialties from
architectural work to sprinkler systems.
Jeff Halsey, job superintendent for Swank Enterprises, the general contractor that built the new facility, said he works on projects this big fairly often and
that the amount of supplies used to build a structure
like LHCs is amazing.
Halsey said they put in 12,000 pieces of sheet rock
and miles and miles of wiring.
While the architectural firm Erdman Company created the plans to make the LHC building, many subcontractors deserve credit for their role in creating
the beautiful building.
For example, walking into the hospital, people will
Contractors work under the warm shelter of tarps

on the outside of the new LHC hospital, on Feb.
26, 2015.
see the wood beams that Western Wood Structures, an
Oregon-based company, created. Western Wood Structures Doug Turner said the company shipped 10,000
to 15,000 pounds worth of wood, which took six to

eight weeks to arrive at the hospital.
The trees used for the beams were Douglas fir from
Oregon.
Another example of a subcontractors contribution
is Mountain Fire Protection, of Columbus, which provided and installed 1,300 automatic sprinklers for the
new hospital. The owner of the company, Michael
Georgeson, said that was a typical amount of sprinklers for a building that size.
Mountain Fire Protection employees, who worked a
total of 1,100 hours on the project for the past year,
just recently finished setting up the last of the sprinklers.
Georgeson said the most interesting part of the process was the touch of adding flush-dial sprinklers,
which typically cost more but are more esthetically
pleasing.
Contractors who installed elevators, pneumatic tubing, landscaping and acoustical ceilings are other
examples of the many contractors that made the new
Livingston Healthcare building complete.
Livingston officials reflect on the benefits of the new hospital

By Samantha Hill
n the first day of the Livingston HealthCare open

house, people in the community were excited to see the
new hospital. But Livingston officials have been anticipating the hospital opening for much longer.
Livingston Fire and Rescue Chief
Ben Coffman is looking forward to
the updated hospital and how it will
benefit his team.
Coffman said the old ambulance
dock was on an incline and would
often hurt medics backs as they

assisted patients. Now with the new
facility, the ambulance can back into
a climate-controlled facility with a
flat surface.
Coffman also noted that the ambulance dock will siphon out all of
ambulance exhaust fumes, which he
said will be better for peoples
health.
Also, the medics will be able to
access the ICU with few difficulties,
he said.
In addition, Coffman said he was
able to work closely with hospital
officials to find the best and safest
routes in case of a fire on the hospital premises.

Former City Manager Ed Meece,
who worked with the hospital on a
number of projects, said the new
facility will be great for the community and its economic development.
Livingston Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director Lou Ann Nelson
agreed, and said the new hospital
will bring Livingston health care into
the future.
The completion of this new facility may act as a springboard to bring
greater growth to the area by
Serving Park County
for 37 Years
CONGRATULATIONS
Livingston on your new Health Care Facility.

We are proud to have been a part of this project.
Mark Tudahl, Owner
(406) 755-8797
6460 Hwy 35, Bigfork, MT 59911
Were proud
of your accomplishment.
And were proud to have been associated with
Livingston HealthCare for many years.
Carole and Scott Buckner, Owners

406-222-7111
115 S. Main St., Livingston, MT 59047
floralboutique.livingston@gmail.com
www.floralboutiquelivingston.com
We salute
on your amazing new home.
Congratulations
The new Livingston HealthCare facility is

something all of us in Park County
can take pride in.
Western
Wood
struCtures
109 So. 2nd

222-0075
attracting new residents and expanding business opportunities, Nelson

wrote in an email.
Livingston City Commission Chairman James Bennett said he also
believes it will bring more money
into the community.
Bennett believes the hospital will
bring not only growth in the city but
also in the area around the facility.
Other community members have
said many similar things since the
LHC open house, remarking about
the buildings beauty while noting
the facility seems more comfortable
than the previous one.
livingston Healthcare
& swank enterprises
www.westernwoodstructures.com
INDUSTRIAL TOWEL
& COVER SUPPLY
- Serving Park County since 1948 218 So. 2nd

222-1131
Congratulations
on your
state-of-the-art facility!
P.O. Box 130

Tualatin, OR 97062
(800) 547-5411
222-2000
401 South Main St.
Livingston
Page 18
New facility a big benefit for both patients and medical staff
By Jasmine Hall
ivingston HealthCares future

new facility holds more benefits for both patients and
medical staff than the old
hospital can offer.
LHC Medical Director Dr. Scott
Coleman described the advantages
the new facility will provide for its
medical staff. The most obvious benefit, Coleman said, is the consolidation of the medical staff in one central location.
It provides an opportunity for a
collaboration and gives (medical
staff) the ability to really work
together and practice relying on
each others different areas of expertise, Coleman said. It will be so
extenuated in this new facility.
With the old LHC facilities, the
hospital location and clinic are divided into different areas. The new
medical campus will allow for greater accessibility and transferring of
information between medical staff.
The opportunity to be able to
attend to an inpatient need all under
the same roof will be so much easier, Coleman explained. If theres
staff that has a question (theyre
closer), verses having to get into a
car and (driving) to the hospital.
Coleman said the distance between
the different LHC locations has been

a challenge, but the new facility will
relieve this obstacle for the doctors
and other medical staff.
Therell no longer be a distance in
outdoor separation between outpatient care and hospital inpatient
care, Coleman said. Through the
course of the day, well be able to
attend to both needs the clinic and
hospital with much more efficiency.
And for patients, this will mean the
process of healing will be more efficient.
Coleman said this will mean more
attentive physicians, as well as the
ability to more effectively adapt
with the changes in patients health
status.
The needs of the nursing staff and
patients, and conditions well be
able to attend to those in a time
frame that is much faster than weve
been able to attempt, he said.
Livingston HealthCare Family Physician Ben Flook, who has been at
LHC for 18 years, agreed, saying the
new facility will provide a healing
environment and promote better
medical care. The new hospitals
accessibility is also a benefit Flook
sees.
The patient flow, getting them in
and out of the facility and examination rooms will be so much more eas-
ier and efficient, he said. It will be

much more conducive to communication with our colleagues.
In addition to the improvements in
centralized facilities and medical
staff, another benefit of the new
facility is updated equipment and
medical rooms. Coleman said the old
LHC facilities were built in the 1960s
and have been a hindrance to medical staff.
Updates include improved technology in MRI capabilities, modern-day
radiology and cardiac monitoring
that the old hospital couldnt provide.
We have a facility that is wired to
the high-tech needs, Coleman said.
It is truly wired for 2015.
In addition, there have been
updates to the rooms themselves,
allowing medical staff a more effective way of treating patients.
Flook mentioned lighting, space
and access to supplies as other benefits of the new hospital facility.
Those are all important and are
going to improve, Flook said.
Theres a lot of small tangibles that,
when they add up, are really important.
Our operating rooms are now very
laid out from an architectural standpoint that relies on what has worked
for the last 10 to 20 years in medicine, Coleman added. The entire
design of the shape, the space of
rooms from the operating room, to

the inpatient room, to the clinic room
have a tremendous amount of
experience and data behind (them)
on what the optimal design is.
Updates in technology and architectural design are vital not only for
doctors and nurses, but are a benefit
for patients as well.
These are essentials of managing
particular aspects of medicine,
Coleman said of the updates. Weve
had those, weve utilized that equipment effectively in the past but
this new capability will provide so
much for real-time access and quality.
The medical staff are eager to
work in their new digs.
Its overwhelming, I think, from
the medical staff throughout the
entire hospital staff, Coleman said.
Theres overwhelming enthusiasm
and excitement.
Were all very excited, Flook
said. I can kind of sense the excitement building. This has been long
awaited, and were ready for the
move.
He added, We realize our current
facilities are inadequate and are
really one of the big limiting factors
in the quality of care we can provide
right now. Now, with the new facility,
we can provide better care for our
community.
Page 19
Parks Reece hopes mural brings a lift to hospital patients

By Jasmine Hall
ntering the lobby on the clinic

side of Livingston HealthCares future hospital location, hospital staff, clients
and visitors will be greeted by an
8-foot by 12-foot mural painted by
local artist Parks Reece.
The mural, titled Goin Fishing, is
an acrylic painting featuring Reeces
signature surrealistic themes. It features a grizzly cub holding a fly rod
and kingfisher bird while riding a cutthroat trout in the sky.
Its sort of this surrealism using
wildlife and fish, Reece said. And I
call it fine art with a sense of humor.
Reece, who has prior experience
working with murals, such as the
East Meets West mural at the Livingston Civic Center, was happy to
paint the mural for LHC.
I wanted to have something in the
hospital that made you feel good, he
said. Because you dont particularly
want to be in a hospital.
He said art can help people take
the edge off their immediate problems.
I felt that this would help people
with their problems, he said. I
believe that about art anyway
music, literature, painting it helps
people. If something makes you feel
Livingston artist Parks Reece is pictured in front of his partially finished animal mural on Sept. 27.
good, then your problems are a little
less pronounced.
With the surrealistic subject matter,
viewers are asked to interpret what is
occurring in the painting. The unusual
main charter of the grizzly riding a
cutthroat is humorous but also puzzling.
The painting asks more questions
than it answers, Reece laughed.

It leaves you to go, Wow, wow, and
just makes you think puts you into
a little revery, a little dream.
The supporting characters the
wildlife at the bottom of the mural,
including a raccoon, elk, marmot,
deer and foxes all look at the peculiar grizzly riding his airborne catch-
of-the-day. All except two animals

the raccoon, which is looking back at
the viewer, and the fox, which is running away.
Theres a little story, a narrative,
Reece explained. You see all the
little animals situated in the valley,
theyre all looking up going, Wow,
what is going on? Cuz just like the
(viewer), theyve never seen that.
Reece also decided to add in the furry foreground creatures because of
the murals location in the pediatrics
waiting area of the hospital. He
placed the animals at eye-level for the
children, so they could be entertained.
Theyll be little children looking
eye-to-eye with the animals, he said.
It serves the purpose of the picture, but then having the animals eyeto-eye with the kids will maybe take a
little pressure off the moms and
dads.
He also wanted the animals to be
educational for children, so he kept
them realistic.
I try to make the anatomy true to
form of what the animal is, Reece
said. And so I anticipate theyll ask
questions What is this? and then
theyll maybe learn a little bit of
something, gain an appreciation for
animals.
See Mural, Page 22
We applaud you
your new facility is state-of-the-art.
Congratulations to the LHC staff, the board of directors and the contractor and subcontractors
on a splendid addition to Park County. Thanks to your efforts, the new campus is impressive.
ENTERPRISE

h e
i v i n g s t o n
401 So. Main 222-2000 www.livingstonenterprise.com
Page 20
LHC benefits from

partnership with
Billings Clinic
By Jasmine Hall
illings Clinic has broad experience with rural health care

partnerships, helping communities grow their hospital facilities. Now, through its partnership with
Livingston HealthCare, Billings Clinic
brings that experience to LHCs new
facility.
With connections to financial aid as
well as vast construction and product
knowledge, Billings Clinic formed the
partnership with LHC to help meet the
areas medical needs, while strengthening its connection with rural communities.
Billings Clinic has, for a long time,
had a big commitment to rural health
care, Billings Clinic Chief Executive
Officer Nicholas Wolter said.
Billings Clinic helps manage critical
access hospitals in 11 communities, but
LHC is one of only three facilities
including Beartooth Billings Clinic in
Red Lodge and Stillwater Billings Clinic
in Columbus that Billings Clinic has
partnered with to build a new hospital.
The partnership between Billings
Clinic and LHC started in 2002, when
Billings Clinic first helped with the
financial issues a new facility posed.

Like with the Red Loge hospital, Billings Clinic was able to use its resources
to obtain government funding through
the United States Department of Agriculture to help LHC finance a future
location.
It allowed us to find ways to get
funding in place that would allow a new
hospital to be built, Wolter explained.
Long before the Billings Clinic and
LHC boards established an official relationship, physicians in both locations
worked closely with each other.
Theres been a strong history of relationships between the physicians who
practice in Livingston and the physicians who practice at Billings Clinic,
Wolter explained, adding that when he
practiced as a pulmonary critical care
physician he worked closely with doctors in Livingston with mutual patients.
The relationships been a long one,
(and) I think its been a good one.
Wolter said the partnership between
Billings Clinic and LHC has been mutually beneficial.
Its just part of how Billings Clinic
looks at our role in Montana working
with a lot of rural clinics, he said.
For Billings Clinic, benefits from the
relationship with LHC include strengthening its footprint across Montana, as
well as increasing its ability to treat
patients from small communities who
might have to travel long distances for
advanced care.
Billings Clinic Foundation President
Jim Duncan added that by helping
smaller communities whose patients
need more advanced care than LHC can
provide, it keeps residents from having

to travel outside Montana.
Were doing more and more things in
our organization, in Billings, that keep
people from having to leave our state,
he said.
Aside from the business benefits,
Billings Clinic also benefits from the
streamlining of the electronic exchange
of information, which makes patient
care more efficient.
One of the unique things that has
evolved with our relationships with the
communities we work with is everybodys on the same electronic health
record, Wolter said. So if a patient
needs to be seen by us, we would have
access to the record (in Livingston) and
vice versa.
LHC will also see advantages of partnering with Billings Clinic. With prior
experience and resources that are
accessible to a larger organizations,
partnering with the Clinic has meant
more financial support for LHC such
as facilitating contact with the USDA
and supplying knowledge of hospital
design and management of construction.
In addition, the Clinics broad experience with building health care facilities
as well as its relationship with other
health care organizations, such as the
Mayo Clinic, means more resources for
LHC.
We shared every ounce of knowledge that we had about design, experience, construction experience, protocols, Duncan said. We opened up our
playbook if you will, to this community
so that they could have every opportu-
nity to learn from ours.

Also, LHC benefits from Billings Clinics equipment purchasing experience.
Our purchasing power and our product knowledge is strong, Mitch Goplen,
Billings Clinics vice president of Facility Services and Construction, said.
And what were able to do is bring that
to the table so when end users are trying to make a decision on a product, we
already have that list of vendors and
pricing structures. So were able to
make that decision with informed information.
Billings Clinic is also keeping LHC
potential for growth in mind.
To have a modern facility where the
best, outstanding care can be given is
the main goal, Wolter said. But we
think this will help, as we need to
recruit more doctors to Livingston, be
more attractive.
Over time, as doctors retire and LHC
grows, Livingston will need to appeal to
physicians, as well as expand in what
LHC can treat.
We expect that there may be, over
time, some new specialists added who
can provide care here in Livingston, he
said. So people dont have to leave Livingston for Billings or Bozeman. The
goal really is to grow the services available here, in Livingston, to serve this
area.
The building is set up not only to
meet the demands of today but also the
needs of the future, Goplen said.
Right now in this facility we can
expand the clinic, we can expand the
surgical area, and the other parts of the
facility as growth takes place.
Page 21
Just the fact that we

have elbow room and
can move around is
going to be huge.
Kathy Blair, director of
LHCs Ancillary Services
Kathy Blair, director of Livingston

HealthCares Ancillary Services,
stands in the new lab next to the
Dimension EXL, a brand-new
chemistry analyzer that will
replace the hospitals old one.
Enterprise photos by
Hunter DAntuono
New lab offers space employees need for work

By Dwight Harriman
o be sure, the lab in Livingston HealthCares

new facility east of Livingston will have
some great new equipment. And Kathy
Blair, director of LHCs Ancillary Services,
is excited about it.
Ancillary Services covers not only lab work, but
everything from imaging, to food and nutrition services, to home health and hospice.
But what excites Blair the most about the new lab
is the sheer amount of space it will provide for its 11
employees and their equipment.
Elbow room
Just the fact that we have elbow room and can

move around is going to be huge, Blair said during
a recent tour of the new lab facilities.
The new lab has about 1,600 square feet compared
to a mere 1,100 at the old hospital.
Whats more, the new lab facilities will all be in
one place. At the old hospital, the lab was scattered
throughout various unconnected rooms, and Blairs
office was clear across the street from the main lab
rooms.
And the space they did have was tight, with equipment purchases based on how much room they had.
When youre in a cramped space, you buy equipment that fits, Blair said.
The new labs spacious accommodations include a
main lab room that will house the blood bank, hematology testing, blood coagulation testing, urinalysis,
and serology (antigen and antibody testing); a
microbiology room for doing cultures, like those for
Empty test tubes are pictured next to the labs new

Dimension EXL chemistry analyzer.
throat infections and wounds; and not one, but two
private blood draw rooms compared to the one
blood draw room at the old hospital.
LHC CEO Bren Lowe said the new labs location
will make things more convenient for patients and
that overall, efficiency is greatly enhanced.
New equipment
Although Blair is enthused about the extra space,

she is also excited about some new gear the lab is
getting specifically, the Dimension EXL.
The EXL is a chemistry analyzer that replaces the
older version a Dimension Vista the lab had.
While the Dimension EXL is a big machine, it fits
comfortably in the new labs main room. Blair point-
ed out its features while she ran tests recently on

the machine to get it ready for duty.
The EXL can do everything from the familiar
analyses you would get, say, during a blood profile
at LHC health fairs cholesterol levels, and kidney,
liver and pancreas functions, etc.) to determining
levels of ammonia, alcohol and many types of drugs,
like acetaminophen.
An acetaminophen test might be conducted for
some small child thats gotten into a bottle of Tylenol, Blair said.
The huge machine is almost completely automated. Lab techs place a sample of whatever needs to
be tested, complete with a bar code associated with
the patient it came from, into the machine, hit some
buttons, and it does its job.
Its really kind of hands-free, Blair said.
The EXL currently can conduct about 50 different
types of tests, but more can be added if needed.
Were hoping it will provide us with some cost
savings over the one we have as well as increased
efficiency, Blair said.
Tube run
The new hospital also has an innovative way the

lab can quickly get samples to test: a pneumatic
tube system. The system, which Blair said will be
heavily used by the lab, connects to the emergency
room, the surgery floor and the clinic, and can send
samples to the lab in seconds.
Well be receiving a lot of our samples that way,
Blair said.
Im excited about all of it, Blair said of the new
lab shortly before it opened for business. Im
ready to get moved in.
Page 22
Cafeteria takes a fresh look at hospital food

By Liz Kearney
ivingston HealthCares new

facility will bring the hospital cafeteria to new heights
literally. When the kitchen
and dining area move into the new
facility, it will be moving out of the
basement of the old hospital and into
the ground level of the new building,
with the atrium soaring above it.
It really doesnt feel like a hospital, LHCs Food and Nutrition Services Manager Jessica Wilcox said in the
weeks prior to the big move.
The new food service area will be
much more than a stereotypical hospital cafeteria. With a new name Caf
Fresh Wilcox hopes the place will
become a destination for a meal, a
snack, or just an espresso, in its own
right. The caf is open to the public
and accessible from the main
entrance without having to enter
patient areas.
The new dining area includes seating for 45 to 55. There is a visible
action station, where a chef will
prepare foods and be able to interact
with diners. And the station, when the
dining area is closed, is designed to do
double-duty as a space for small cooking classes, Wilcox said. The classes
The atrium holding the hospitals spacious and bright dining area is pictured
on Oct. 5.
can be offered, for example, to
patients with diabetes or cardiac
issues who need to learn how to prepare meals for specific health issues.
Caf Fresh will continue LHCs participation in a program called Farm to
Chocolate Beet Cake
Institution, making a priority of

sourcing as much food as possible
from local and area producers, featuring products from local growers,
ranchers and coffee roasters. Wilcox
said purchasing from local vendors
Frosting:
cup bittersweet chocolate chips
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
7 tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
Yields 16 servings
Cake:
1 cups granulated sugar
1 cup cooked, sliced beets
cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
cup all-purpose flour
cup whole wheat pastry four
1 tsp. baking soda
cup cocoa powder
tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line with

parchment two 9 square pans.
Filling:
cup half-and-half whipped into still peaks
cups cream cheese, softened
cup unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
For the cake: In a bowl, cream butter and oil.

Drain beets and reserve cup of juice. In a blender,
puree the beets with the reserved liquid. Add to
creamed mixture along with eggs and vanilla. Blend
well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour,
baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Add to the
creamed mixture and mix for 30 seconds. Scrape
the sides and bottom of the bowl, turn the mixer on
high and beat for two minutes. Divide between the
prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes or until a
helps foster a strong and self-reliant

food system in Park County.
Supporting local food sources helps
keep food production organizations
profitable and in business in the local
area, which supports local sustainability, she said.
The more we can purchase locally,
the more we can keep local producers
in business and that food will be
there, Wilcox said.
Hospital patients will enjoy the
same foods served at Caf Fresh, Wilcox said. Patients will be able to
phone in their meal requests and
order off the same menu available to
the public.
The menu features fresh, minimally
processed foods. Snack foods will be
healthful items like trail mix and
chips that are baked, not fried.
Theres no self-serve soda dispenser,
Wilcox said, nor are there unhealthy
ingredients in the foods like trans fats
or high-fructose corn syrup.
And even desserts have nutritious
vegetables tucked in. Wilcox shared a
recipe (see below) for a dense chocolate cake from Bettie Shomper, one of
LHCs chef coordinators, that contains
a surprising, healthful ingredient.
You honestly cant tell there are a
lot of roasted beets in there, Wilcox
laughed.
toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven

and cool for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pans,
peel off the paper and cool completely on rack. Cut
each cake in half to make four 9x4 strips.
For the filling: Whip the cream until it holds a stiff
peak. In a small bowl, mix the softened cream
cheese and butter together. Whisk the powdered
sugar alternately with the creamed mixture into the
whipped cream, gradually in small amounts. Stir in
the vanilla and chill thoroughly before using.
For the frosting: Melt the chocolate and butter in a
saucepan over low heat. Stir until smooth. Remove
from the heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Add the
cream, vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat with an
electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
To assemble: Spread the filling on the tops of
three of the layers of cake and stack four layers
high, topping with the remaining cake layer. Wrap
tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several
hours.
Remove from the refrigerator and frost.
Mural, from Page 19

Surrealistic, entertaining and educational factors are not the only aspects
Reece wanted to include in the artwork. He also wanted beauty.
I think beauty elevates (people) and
makes them feel good, Reece said.
So I try to make the landscape and
the fish beautiful.
To come up with the concept for

Goin Fishing Reece spent his time
taking walks and pondering.
I would go on walks and just look
around at the sky and the animals,
mountains, and just think, he recalled.
And it just eventually dawned on me.
Sort of like having a waking dream.
Reece wants to achieve what he calls

an awe effect with the mural and
hopes his artwork will bring hospital
visitors positive emotions when coming to the hospital to heal.
I wanted to make you laugh a little,
he said. To make you feel fondness
for the animals who are all having a
good time.
Parks completed painting the canvas
at the Lincoln Schools art gallery after
a month. On Oct. 3, he wrapped up the
painting for LHC to transport it to the
hospitals new location, where it was
installed before the open house celebration held Oct. 10.
Page 23
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OPPORTUNITYBANK.COM
Page 24
Were all over this place!
Maverick
Realty
Michelle Becker
Broker/ Owner
Bruce Lay
Broker
515 West Park Livingston
Land Residential
Commercial Ranch
(406) 222-0304
Peg Sundling
Realtor
Michael Wojdylak
Realtor
Stephanie Brittain
Realtor
Christine Jupe
Realtor
Amanda Gentry
Realtor
Connie Peterson
Realtor
See all the listings available in our area, view the entire MLS at
www.MaverickBrokers.com
email: Maverick@MaverickBrokers.com
Danice Heidt
Assistant

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Livingston HealthCare

For The Future

A publication of The Livingston Enterprise

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

Enterprise photo by Hunter DAntuono

Welcome to the future of Livingston HealthCare

ing of the new Livingston HealthCare

tive offices, imaging, a womens center,

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

Tear off of existing roof systems

Single-ply membrane systems

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

Through brutal wind, cold and snow,

Enterprise Staff Writer

ver tried to build a hospital in the Livingston wind?

ABOVE: Shown is the job scene of the new hospital

LEFT: Jeff Halsey, job superintendent for Swank

On the other side of it, one of the things Halsey

Halsey, who hails originally from Indiana, lives in

Enterprise photo by Dwight Harriman

subcontractors, Halsey said.

Halsey expressed appreciation for the good work

done by local workers on his force; the local motels

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

We are proud to serve as the general contractor

Building Montana Dreams

Phone: (406) 752-5411

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

Enterprise file photo

Livingstons long history with health care

Enterprise Staff Writer

ealth care has always been

First Livingston Hospital

Livingston got its own hospital a few

Enterprise file photo

ment is absolutely essential to good

obstetrical cases is not only better, but

See History, Page 13

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

RESTAURANT SUPPLY & KITCHEN DESIGN

The Livingston HealthCare

See us for all your insurance needs.

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

The new face of LHC:

n Oct. 10, during the open

Large windows fill every facet of the

Enterprise photos by Hunter DAntuono

A driving force behind the interior

The second-floor surgery waiting area features a double-sided fireplace.

munication, said Lowe of the clinic

See Tour, Page 11

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

The new Livingston HealthCare campus is

Congratulations from our Pharmacy Staff

1313 W. Park Livingston 222-7332

Charles Vondra Allison Atherton

North 19th at Springhill Road

Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

I Livingston HealthCare For The Future I October 22, 2015

Enterprise photo by Hunter DAntuono

A sweeping staircase connects the spacious first-floor lobby to the second

It feels so good to be home!