Thanks to help from state and local health and disaster officials, Billings Clinic has secured federal resources in the efforts to care of COVIC-19 patients. Through the efforts of Yellowstone County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator KC Williams and the State of Montana, the hospital has been given 15 new GE Healthcare CARESCAPE R860 ventilators, which aid critically ill patients in breathing. The government agencies, including the county health department, helped to  connect Billings Clinic with the U.S. Department of Health and Human (HHS), which provided the ventilators.

Billings Clinic has also received a $150,000 grant through the Montana Coronavirus Relief Grants Program, which provides federal CARES Act funding to businesses and organizations throughout the state. Billings Clinic will use these funds to help build a permanent Viral Triage Unit (VTU), which provides COVID-19 and respiratory illness testing. The permanent VTU will allow for continued testing in a convenient location next to Billings Clinic’s SameDay Care on the downtown Billings campus. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020.

Also, a seven-person care team arrived in Billings to assist the hospital, thanks to the efforts of the federal HHS and the State of Montana and DPHHS. The team includes four nurses, a physician and support staff.  They are one of five such teams deployed this week to hospitals across Montana.