Billings Clinic Emergency Department Celebrates 50 Years, Shares Expansion Plans
Billings, MT— Billings Clinic celebrated its Emergency Department’s (ED) 50th anniversary on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. Current and former colleagues gathered and shared stories and fellowship as the organization looked back at its inception, its journey to the present, and ahead to the next 50 years.
For five decades, since the first week of July 1975, the Billings Clinic Emergency Department has served as a leader and innovator in lifesaving care for Montana and the surrounding region. Formally opening in 1975 with just a few rooms and four physicians providing round-the-clock emergency care, what was then known as the Deaconess Hospital Emergency Department saw just a few patients per day. In 1976, Deaconess launched Montana’s first advanced life support ground ambulance service, and in 1977, an air ambulance service was formed, extending care across the region. In 1980, the ED moved to a new, larger location in the hospital and was named the Charles M. Bair Family Memorial Emergency and Trauma Center, featuring 13 rooms, an endoscopy lab and a rooftop helipad. In 1992, Billings Clinic became Montana’s first Level II Trauma Center. In 2007, the ED moved to its current location, doubling its capacity to 36 beds and becoming Montana’s largest and busiest Emergency Department. In 2022, Billings Clinic earned designation as the first Comprehensive Stroke Center in Montana and Wyoming, and it remains the only one today. In 2023, Billings Clinic was verified by the American college of Surgeons as Montana’s first Level I Trauma Center, at the time the only one within a 550-mile radius. Today, the ED treats more than 50,000 patients annually and has seen about1.1 million since first opening its doors.
Now, with a major expansion and modernization underway, the region’s busiest ED is poised to continue that legacy for generations to come.
The Emergency Department will grow from 36 to 39 treatment rooms, not counting additional surge capacity, to better serve the ever-increasing number of patients who rely on its services each year.
Highlights of the 8,500-square-foot expansion include:
- Expanded Trauma and Critical Care: One additional trauma bay and two new critical care/trauma rooms will provide more space to care for multiple critical care patients at once.
- Improved Workflow: An expanded nurse station, a new vertical care unit for patients with less acute needs, and a redesigned layout will help teams deliver care more efficiently.
- Enhanced Support for First Responders and Staff: Plans include a new EMS lounge, a larger ambulance bay that can accommodate four ambulances at once and expanded staff and physician support areas.
- Advanced Imaging and Safety: A new CT/X-ray suite inside the ED and a dedicated hazmat/decontamination area will help teams respond to any scenario safely and swiftly.
“Today, our Emergency Department, with its 36 rooms, is more than a medical facility; it is a regional safety net and the largest and busiest emergency department in the state of Montana,” said Todd Blake, Billings Clinic President of Hospital Operations. “We are often not just an option; we are the option for emergency care. As we honor our past over the last 50 years, we remain focused on our future, where emergency care is faster, safer and more advanced than ever before. Our commitment includes an upcoming expansion and renovation to improve patient experience, to invest in our people and to embrace the innovation that makes emergency care more precise and effective. That is why, through the generosity of so many donors, we are excited to be moving forward on a multi-million-dollar expansion of our emergency department.”
About Billings Clinic
Billings Clinic and Logan Health are united as a not-for-profit, Montana-based, independent health care system focused on keeping people close to home and connecting care in communities throughout the region. The unified health system serves an area that includes most of Montana, northern Wyoming and the western Dakotas. A not-for-profit organization led by a physician CEO, Billings Clinic is governed by a board of community members, nurses and physicians. At its core, Billings Clinic is a physician-led, integrated multispecialty group practice with a 336-bed hospital and Montana’s first Level I Trauma Center. Billings Clinic is the largest trauma center and the first established and longest standing ACS-COT continually accredited trauma center in the state of Montana. Billings Clinic has more than 4,500 employees, including nearly 600 physicians and advanced practitioners offering more than 80 specialties. Billings Clinic is the first Magnet-designated health care organization in Montana and a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network.
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