Salt Lake City — Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City are expanding their partnership with St. Vincent Healthcare to bring an expert team of pediatric surgeons to the Billings, Montana, hospital.

Providing internationally-recognized clinicians in pediatric surgery at the St. Vincent children’s “hospital within a hospital” will help improve patient outcomes through innovative techniques and rigorous research initiatives — and keep patients closer to home.

“This expanded partnership with St. Vincent will help alleviate travel burdens for Montana families and improve access to needed specialty pediatric surgeries to the children of Billings and the surrounding area,” Primary Children’s Hospital Administrator Dustin Lipson said. “Providing care as close to home as possible is critical to our mission and our guiding philosophy of keeping ‘The Child First and Always’ in all that we do.”

Montana is part of Primary Children’s Hospital’s 400,000-square mile service area, which is one of the largest geographic service areas of any children’s hospital in the nation. Primary Children’s provides care for families in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Montana and Alaska.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and the University of Utah’s School of Medicine,” said Michael Skehan, chief operating officer of St. Vincent Healthcare. “In an effort to exceed expectations for quality healthcare for our patients and community, we believe that offering pediatric surgery to some of our most vulnerable patients is one way we fulfill our mission.”

Primary Children’s Hospital has partnered with St. Vincent Healthcare to offer advanced pediatric care to children and families in Billings since 2016. The new Primary Children’s surgical services team at St. Vincent will provide additional services including neonatal surgery, and treats pediatric surgical problems including congenital anomalies, vascular access, gallbladder disease, reflux disease, chest wall deformities, appendicitis, inguinal hernias, umbilical hernias, tumors, and gastrotomy tubes.

Primary Children’s surgeons rotate their time in Billings to provide specialty pediatric surgical services, including neonatal surgery. Each surgeon will spend up to two weeks at a time in Billings and consult with patients and remain on call 24 hours a day.

Telemedicine, already provided at St. Vincent, will connect surgeons to the varied expertise of the Primary Children’s team when needed. A backup surgeon in the specialty area of the Billings surgeon will remain at Primary Children’s to ensure patients there have full access to care.