It’s official: Powell Valley Healthcare is becoming an affiliate of Billings Clinic.

The Powell Valley Healthcare Board of Trustees signed a formal affiliation agreement with Billings Clinic on Monday, concluding a three-year long process of creating a new governance arrangement between the two nonprofit organizations.

“Billings Clinic has a great deal of experience working with rural health care facilities and has shown success in expanding medical specialties in communities like ours,” said R.J. Kost, chair of the PVHC Board of Trustees. “Powell Valley Healthcare and Billings Clinic working together will provide more opportunities and healthcare for our citizens.”

This new affiliation agreement will provide a wide range of ways the two organizations can collaborate to improve and enhance patient care in Powell and the surrounding area. Among the benefits is the integration of the two providers’ medical records system.

North Big Horn Hospital in Lovell has been affiliated with Billings Clinic for over a decade. North Big Horn CEO Rick Schroeder cited, among many benefits, the integration of records as a key enhancement in care from their collaboration with Billings Clinic.

“It provides a continuity of care,” he explained, when patients go up to Billings for specialized care or when they return.

PVHC CEO Terry Odom also noted the benefits of the integration and increased access to specialists. She added that the affiliation would not mean more patients going to Billings. Instead, she said, it will result in more care available locally.

“I believe our partners with Billings Clinic will enhance the medical care for Powell and the Basin long into the future,” Odom said.

The affiliation will also result in reduced costs for supplies and equipment, which will allow PVHC to buy better equipment sooner. This will improve the quality of care patients receive at PVHC, Odom said.

The affiliation with Billings Clinic will also provide educational opportunities for board and staff members, which Schroeder said was beneficial to North Big Horn.

“It allows our board to do a better job,” he said.

Other improvements in processes and formal leadership development programs are expected for PVHC, along with human resources assistance, which will help with recruitment.

PVHC had been looking for a partner since 2017, when it parted ways with HealthTech Management Services, its then-management company. The PVHC board voted to formally explore an affiliation with Billings Clinic in November 2018.

Joy Ott, chair of the Billings Clinic Board of Directors, attended Monday’s PVHC board meeting and spoke about the three-year process to bring the agreement to fruition. Ott said she had been involved since the earliest discussions with PVHC and said the provider’s culture and commitment to quality healthcare was in line with Billings Clinic’s goals. That suggested an affiliation would be a good collaboration for the two providers.

“Whenever we win, we win together,” Ott said. “No one is alone.”

Clint Segar, chief medical officer of the region at Billings Clinic, said PVHC’s experience with rural healthcare also made for a good match.

“Billings Clinic has a long tradition of partnering with Montana and Wyoming communities to advance rural health care,” Segar said in a statement. “With this affiliation, we will be able to partner to keep care local and add specialty services through outreach and other clinical partnerships.”

Billings Clinic recently hired a new CEO, Scott Ellner. Jim Duncan, president of the Billings Clinic Foundation, discussed how, in the course of hammering out the agreement, PVHC had some concern over how the transition in leadership could impact the affiliation.

Duncan explained Ellner had previously shown a dedication to affiliations with rural providers while CEO at Centura Health Physician Group in Colorado, where he “reached out” to over 200 providers in western Kansas.

“What I heard loud and clear when I interviewed at Billings Clinic,” Ellner said, “is the commitment to our regional facilities, our rural sites.”

Ellner said he put 40,000 miles on his vehicle in the pursuit of similar collaborations at Centura with affiliates.

“I’m very excited to partner with all of you and look forward to the next few years,” he said.

PVHC joins 13 other health care organizations in Montana and Wyoming that are affiliated with Billings Clinic, which also co-owns Community Medical Center in Missoula.

There are still some details to work out before the affiliation is complete, but the agreement signed Monday was a premier step in finalizing the agreement that will guide the collaboration.

Emergency department improvements put on hold

A planned renovation of Powell Valley Healthcare’s emergency room has been put on hold after construction bids for the project came in over budget.

PVHC originally estimated that the project would cost about $1.7 million and the hospital district pursued a grant from the State Loan and Investment Board for $773,466. The request was ultimately denied in June, but the hospital went forward with the project. PVHC officials added further improvements to the exam rooms, which increased the project’s budgeted costs to $2.9 million. The figure included a $200,000 contingency, and the hospital was spreading the cost over two years.

In October, the hospital received three bids on the work, ranging from $3.26 million to $3.63 million.

In order to bring the project back within budget limits, the hospital is working with Mitch Goplen, vice president of facility services for Billings Clinic, to reevaluate the project’s scope and cost.

Heart Mountain Construction provided the lowest bid on a USP 800 project, which was added to the hospital improvement project in the hopes that combining them would provide some cost savings for both.

The USP 800 is a vent hood that allows for safe handling of hazardous drugs to reduce risk of exposure to hospital employees, patients, and the environment.

Heart Mountain Construction bid $302,209 on the USP 800 project, and the PVHC Board of Directors approved moving forward with that piece. Construction began last month.

Terry Odom, Powell Valley Healthcare CEO, said she expects the reevaluation of the emergency department improvement plans to be complete within a couple months, with the project moving forward shortly after.