Recognized Programs
We provide critical care services to our patients in the communities we serve. We often see patients who are recovering from disabilities caused by injuries, illnesses, or chronic medical conditions.
Certified in Respiratory Failure
Advanced Care Hospital of Montana is the first hospital in Montana to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Respiratory Failure. We are proud to be a “Center of Excellence” for all respiratory failure patients, including those who require prolonged ventilator management and weaning.
Respiratory failure occurs when there isn’t enough oxygen passing from the lungs into the body’s blood stream to help the body’s organs – such as the heart and brain – function properly. We treat numerous medical, surgical, and traumatic conditions that can potentially result in respiratory failure, including:
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Pneumonia
- Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
- Other medical or surgical complications that require prolonged mechanical ventilation
- Interstitial lung disease and other pulmonary diseases that require high flow oxygen
- Conditions that affect the nerves and muscles that control breathing, such as stroke, spinal cord injuries, and muscular dystrophy
To achieve the best possible results for our patients, we utilize best practices and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. This helps us provide not only the physical but the emotional healing our patients need. These include:
- Prolonged mechanical ventilation
- Mechanical ventilation weaning
- Patient nutritional requirements
- Patient positioning program
- Sleep/wake cycle
- Pharmacy guidelines
- Case management guidelines
- Early mobility guidelines and pathways
By implementing these guidelines into our respiratory failure program, we’ve been able to improve how quickly and safely we can wean patients from ventilators. These guidelines also help us successfully prevent hospital-acquired wounds and pressure ulcers. In addition, family involvement also is promoted in conjunction with the clinical practice guidelines. It is key to a patients’ recovery process, helping to increase the chance that patients will be discharged back to home.
National Quality Achievement Award
Advanced Care Hospital of Montana has been recognized nationally for its work in nutrition management and administration for patients being weaned from ventilators in its critical care hospitals.
The initiative, which was initiated and led by Cindy Tew, Ernest Health’s Director of Clinical Programs and Resources and Anne Woodbury, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at Utah Valley Specialty Hospital, won the 2017 Quality Achievement Award from the National Association of Long Term Hospitals.
The initiative explored if there were specific nutritional indicators that could be tracked that might influence ventilator weaning. In particular, the initiative focused on finding if the level of protein provided to a ventilated patient had any effect on the success of weaning the patient off the ventilator.