Health Center Will Replace Bed Bath and Beyond in Missoula

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Providence Montana will open a new health center inside the former Bed Bath and Beyond location in Southgate Mall.

I spoke to Amber Norris, Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development with Providence in the Montana service area about the purpose of the new Providence Southgate Health Center.

New Southgate Health Center going into Bed Bath and Beyond

“We realized that we were short on primary care physicians to cover the community,” began Norris. “From there, we identified that our top priority was to establish a primary care and urgent care clinic in the south end of Missoula, kind of in that Midtown location. That's where we identified the former Bed Bath and Beyond which had the perfect square footage space for us to establish that as well as a general cardiology clinic.”

Norris described some of the services that will be offered at the new clinic after it opens next year.

The Providence Clinic will Offer Urgent Care and Cardiac Services

“You’ll be able to walk right in to get some urgent care services, if that's something they need to do, where, if there's something wrong that's not at an ER level, but something they don't feel they want to wait for primary care appointments, and care site is perfect for them,” she said. They can also establish with a primary care provider that will be at that site and have them be their physician, or APP (Advanced Practice Provider.)”

Norris said the new Southgate Health Center will also provide cardiac services.

“We also have our general cardiologists who will be setting up down there so that it's easy to access to get their general cardiology services as well,” she said. “The urgent care will have basic imaging like X-ray, and we'll also have lab services available there too.”

The $18 Million Clinic will Open in the Fall of Next Year

Norris also provided the budget and construction timeline for the new Southside clinic.

“Our budget for these three services is an investment of about $18 million, and it will be open in the summer of 2025,” she said. “We're expecting the work to start in about September or maybe early October, depending on when we can line up with our partners in construction and architecture. But the work will start in fall of this year.”

Norris said that once opened, the center will be ‘the first of its kind in Missoula’.