Yesterday Billings Clinic announced that it’s purchased a 54 acre piece of land in Bozeman adjacent to Interstate 90.
Billings Clinic is the biggest hospital company in Montana, operating a 304-bed hospital in Billings, and managing 11 small hospitals in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. It’s a non-profit organization, but last year it bought Missoula’s Community hospital in a partnership with a for-profit company based in Tennessee.
Julie Burton, Billings Clinic’s director of communications, says people should not assume that just because they bought 54 acres in Bozeman, that they’re going to build a new hospital on that site.
"That is too much of an assumption to make, as we have not decided what we will do with that property."
Billings Clinic first entered the Bozeman market back in 1998, helping to open a dialysis clinic there. It’s no longer in that business. It does, though, operate an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Bozeman that it opened in 2005.
"Billings Clinic has been looking at opportunities to expand clinical services in Bozeman for a long time, and the first step in having an opportunity to expand is to secure the land, and this land is in a great location and it was the right thing to do."
Now, Burton says, Billings Clinic has some homework to do before deciding its next step.
"The first thing to do is to assess what clinical services are available, and look at the patient population and see what the trends are, and see where there is opportunity for additional clinical services that are needed and would be welcomed in Bozeman."
Burton says there’s no timeline for Billings Clinic’s decision on what to do with its new property in Bozeman.