On a recent afternoon, every available employee at Advanced Care Hospital of Montana dropped what they were doing and hustled to the lobby. Code Irvin had just been announced over the intercom.
Within minutes, two dozen employees gathered along the hospital's main hallway as patient Phil Desatoff slowly rolled past them in a wheelchair. Wearing a Los Angeles Angels jacket, Desatoff shook hands and slapped high fives on his way out the front door. Desatoff, 41, was injured in a one-car accident on Interstate 90 east of Billings Jan. 28. After receiving his initial treatment at St. Vincent Healtchare, Desatoff spent two weeks recuperating at Advanced Care Hospital prior to his March 5 discharge.
"Between the folks at St. Vincent and these people here, my care was just amazing," Desatoff said as he left the hospital. "Everybody took tremendous care of me."
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Code Irvin, named after the first patient to be discharged from the hospital, is the staff's way of saying goodbye to patients they have come to know during sometimes lengthy stays at Montana's newest acute-care hospital, said Joe McClure the hospital's chief executive officer. Code Irvin is announced several times per week, whenever a patient is discharged.
"It's really rewarding to see people going home, and we're usually really excited to see them," said Tiffany O'Neill, an occupational therapist who was among those who wished Desatoff goodbye. "When they first come here, they're in an acute condition and usually need a lot of care."
One axiom of business is that you shouldn't try to be all things to all people. With that in mind, Advanced Care Hospital has carved out a niche in the Billings health care industry by concentrating on services that aren't duplicated elsewhere.
The hospital opened a little more than a year ago. It serves patients who require longer hospital stays while recovering from surgery, injuries or illness. The 48,000-square-foot, 40-bed facility at 3528 Gabel Road is defined as a long-term acute care hospital, or LTAC.
Advanced Care Hospital's patients don't require the concentrated intervention provided in an intensive care unit. But they're often hospitalized for 25 days or longer, and their care typically requires complicated or sophisticated treatment, including physical, occupational or speech therapy.
"It fits into the category of care that hasn't been given in Montana or Wyoming," McClure said.
Advanced Care Hospital is one of 14 facilities in eight states that are operated by New Mexico-based Ernest Health Inc.
Most of Advanced Care Hospital's patients come from St. Vincent and the Billings Clinic, but it has also received referrals from around Montana and Wyoming, McClure said.
"The other hospitals have adjusted their services. We give them the opportunity to move patients to a place that has the appropriate level of service," McClure said. The hospital averages 25 to 30 patients per day.
"We're different because we have no emergency room, no operating room and we don't deliver babies," McClure said. "A lot of people think we're a nursing home, but we're not."
As part of a trend that's taking hold in health facilities throughout the nation, therapists at Advanced Care Hospital have embraced the use of video games to help their patients get better. Wii bowling, using the video game produced by Nintendo, is a frequent activity in the hospital's gymnasium.
Wii provides more physical activity than other video games. Instead of pushing buttons or manipulating a joystick on a game controller, participants simulate the motions used in tennis, golf, baseball or bowling.
"This provides a fun context for people who need help regaining balance and movement," said Karyn Ottolino, the hospital's director of therapeutics.
During a recent wii bowling session, patients Roger McNeil, Bennie Maytum, Daniel Takes Enemy and Pat Evans tried their hand at knocking down electronic pins. The patients cheered when Takes Enemy, nicknamed the "Smooth Operator," tossed a strike.
Kristin Lotton, a physical therapy assistant, said some patients are reluctant to try the game, but shyness soon yields to enthusiasm.
"Some had to be encouraged to start, but they soon realized how much fun it is," Ottolino said.
The building was designed to maximize patient comfort. All patient rooms are private, and all have windows.
McClure led the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, Yellowstone County's economic development agency, for six years before taking the job in health care.
As director of Big Sky EDA, McClure was usually out in the community and he often talked about having 100,000 bosses, the taxpayers.
"The transition has been interesting," McClure said. "I'm focusing on this facility only and I have a whole lot fewer bosses."
