St. Luke at 70: Looking forward

At the ripe old age of 70, St. Luke Community Healthcare Network has weathered winds of change that have sunk rural hospitals across the state and nation.

When Steve Todd, who took the helm as CEO a decade ago, looks forward, he sees a bright, stable future. And when he looks back at the past 10 years, he sees growth punctuated by a pandemic “that we’re still reeling from.”

During the past decade, St. Luke opened Ridgewater Clinic, the latest addition to its roster of clinics in Ronan, St. Ignatius and Polson. They’ve added an outpatient chemotherapy and infusion center on the second floor of the Ronan hospital, and recently renovated the Extended Care Facility, built in 1976. Nuclear medicine, an updated CT scanner and other advanced diagnostic equipment came on line, as well as electronic health records and centralized patient monitoring.

“Our goal is to ensure we’re bringing world-class technology to our community,” Todd said.

From its early days when just two physicians tended patients in a cinderblock building on the outskirts of town, St. Luke now employs more than 420 people, making it the largest private employer in Lake County.

The network has also expanded its mental health offerings over the last decade with the addition of a psychiatrist, Dr. Eleanore Hobbs, and licensed clinical social workers.

“We’ve tried to bring mental health into the primary care space because we know it’s tied to physical health,” he said. “They go hand and hand.”

St. Luke is also working to help reduce opioid use by offering a three-pronged program that includes nerve ablation procedures, physical therapy and alternative medication for non-addictive pain relief.

St. Luke works with a wide range of specialists and partners across the region, including Logan Health and Glacier ENT in Kalispell, St. Patrick and Community hospitals in Missoula, and Billings Clinic Heart and Vascular, also in Missoula.

So far, they’ve navigated some of the obstacles that have broken other rural facilities, such as declining reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid, increases in federal regulations, the high cost of medical equipment and technology, and the challenges of recruiting and retaining staff.

In part, Todd attributes the network’s success in recruitment to the hospital’s role as a clinical training site for rural health care providers. St. Luke is part of Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana, which helps train young physicians, and Montana WWAMI, which provides medical education and training to students, residents and practicing physicians.

“All of our clinical departments have some type of clinical relationship with oftentimes multiple universities as a training site … and it continues to help us remain sharp and at the leading edge of medical and clinical knowledge.”

The experience also helps visiting students and residents “see that rural healthcare can be every bit as sophisticated and exciting as what they might see in an urban teaching hospital,” Todd said. He added that these training programs have helped St. Luke “recruit countless people who are exceptional to this area.”

“The bottom line is you’ve got a group of very committed dedicated talented people that serve this community and do it compassionately. When you have that, it’s a recipe that I don’t think can be beat.”

COVID’s arrival in 2020 strained an already challenged healthcare system, locally, nationally and around the world. “We were definitely not immune to it,” said Todd.

He credits the staff and caregivers with helping patients and the community pull through. “It’s really humbling to think of the work our caregivers gave during that time,” he said. “Our nursing staff, our clinical staff, our physicians – they’re heroes really.”

The pandemic also offered lessons in cooperation as healthcare providers set aside age-old rivalries and found ways to help each other. With the pandemic finally receding, those relationships continue, “out of both necessity and support.”

Todd says St. Luke has “a great relationship” with Providence St. Joseph in Polson, whose COO Devin Huntley is an old friend and fellow hockey enthusiast. “We relied on each other through COVID and I think it’s made both organizations stronger as a result.”

St. Luke also works closely with Tribal Health. “There are lots of areas where we’ve worked together, shared resources and covered each other – it’s a great outcome as a result of COVID.”

Now, it’s time to look forward. For Todd, that means an opportunity “to reconnect and reestablish our priorities – to sit back and look at areas where we’re reaching capacity and to then put a plan together to continue to build for our future.”

What would those community members who worked so hard to build a rural hospital 70 years ago think of St. Luke today? “I think they would be amazingly proud of their effort and the legacy they’ve created,” he said. “And they should be.”