Missoula Hospital Closes Pediatric ICU, Sending About 25 Children a Year Elsewhere
Updated
Updated · Medical Daily · Oct 28
Missoula Hospital Closes Pediatric ICU, Sending About 25 Children a Year Elsewhere
3 articles · Updated · Medical Daily · Oct 28
Summary
Community Medical Center in Missoula shut its pediatric intensive care unit this month and will now stabilize the sickest children before transferring them to other hospitals.
About 25 patients a year are expected to be affected after the hospital failed to recruit a resident pediatric intensivist for eight years and cited low volumes and chronic staffing shortages.
Kalispell, roughly 120 miles north, now has the nearest pediatric ICU in Montana, a gap doctors say can matter for children needing ventilators, seizure monitoring or other intensive care.
Missoula joins a broader contraction in pediatric hospital capacity: U.S. hospitals with pediatric inpatient units fell nearly 30% from 2008 to 2022, while similar closures have hit Oregon and the Kansas City area.
Researchers say beds are clearly disappearing, but evidence is still limited on whether longer transfers are worsening outcomes, even as clinicians report some children reaching regional hubs sicker.