The first hospital to be established in Billings almost 125 years ago is planning to commission and move into a new building on its campus.
Faith-based nonprofit St. Vincent Healthcare announced this week that it’ll replace its main building with one that adds 42 rooms and 180,000 square feet to its Billings campus, the equivalent of almost two city blocks.
St. Vincent Healthcare COO Krikor Jansezian said the hospital will go from 253 beds to 295.
“We have estimated through a variety of consulting firms that Billings and Yellowstone is growing about 18 percent in the next five to 10 years,” he said. “Housing is going to be needed, healthcare is going to be needed, as well as other retail businesses are going to be needed. So, we’re getting ready for population growth that we’re seeing.”
Hospital administration said it will be more cost effective to construct a new building than to modernize the current one.
St. Vincent Healthcare is still in the early planning stages and needs to pin down necessary approvals from the city of Billings. Once construction begins, it’s expected to take about 5 years.
