Seeley Swan Medical Center - Providing Health Care in Western Montana.

A History of the Seeley Swan Medical Center

Based on research by Donna Love

When medical care was non-existent in the Valley folks who moved there knew that they did so at their own risk. Trappers, homesteaders, and loggers were on their own. Home remedies or long tedious drives by horse and buggy, and later by car, to Missoula for medical services were the only way to survive a bad accident or illness.

When Community and St. Patrick Hospitals were built in Missoula in the 1940's Valley residents could call an ambulance, but it would take more than an hour to arrive and most folks didn't have a phone to make the call for help. Pyramid Mountain Lumber Company south of town, the Ranger Station north of town, and "the Big Store," the grocery store, where the Grizzly Claw now resides, were the only places with early phones.

If a call did reach Missoula and the ambulance was dispatched, sometimes the crew couldn't find the exact location of the patient, or in winter, couldn't get through the snow. The hospital might call ahead and ask local people to help direct the ambulance. One winter, Community Hospital called a local resident to ask if he would help the ambulance find a place on Placid Lake. When asked if their ambulance had four-wheel drive. Of course, it didn't so the resident met them on Highway 83 and took the “crew to the home in his own four-wheel drive." The situation didn't change much until the late 1950's.

A registered nurse, Helen Rich, who served as the head nurse for Pediatrics at St. Vincent's Hospital in Billings during World War II arrived in the Valley. She gladly offered her help in times of need and folks no longer felt so all alone with their troubles.

Helen’s husband became the head ambulance driver. Having received advanced first aid training in the Service, he was a big help. It also helped that the road to Missoula had been paved in the early 1950's. They transported victims of car accidents and one time they rushed a mother in labor to the emergency room, making pretty good time since the baby was delivered about an hour later.

By the early 1960's telephones were in most homes and the community began to feel its first real growing pains. Seeley's first volunteer fire department formed in 1961 and in 1963-64 Seeley Lake went modern with its first ambulance, a 1959 blue Cadillac hearse. Alvin Rovero, gas station owner and early resident of Seeley Lake, purchased it for $300.00 and donated it the community. No one remembers where Rovero bought the hearse, but it was the perfect vehicle for the job, though being transported to the hospital in a hearse didn't do much for patient morale.

The hearse served the community well for 10 years, but the population in the valley kept growing. By the early 1970’s Seeley Lake had 800 residents, Swan Lake had 300 and Ovando had 120. Concerned citizens from these three communities invited state officials to come to Seeley Lake in March of 1970 to address the Valley’s needs.

At the meeting the state officials listened to tales of long drives to Missoula with hurt or sick loved ones and the crowd was getting worked up. That made the state officials kind of "testy" and finally they said, "What DO you want?" The townsfolk's asked, "What can we have?" and the officials said, "You can't have a doctor, but you can have a nurse." That same night the S.O.S, (which stands for Seeley, Ovando, Swan) Health Committee was formed.

The committee met with state officials on April 10, 1970 to decide a specific plan. At that meeting this report concerning the area was made: "90% of all pre-school and school children were immunized. The summer influx of people staying in motels was 2500 per month. The Forest Service estimated serving 10,000 people per year in their campgrounds and there were 86 registered Sno-Catters in the area, but an undetermined total."

The state agreed that a Nurse Practitioner was in order. She would have an advisory clinic in Missoula and also handle the observation of patients under a doctor's care.

The S.O.S. Health Committee was advised that funding for the nurse would take months. They didn't want to wait that long. When the committee learned that they could immediately hire a nurse on a fee basis they were ecstatic. They started looking at available land and buildings to temporarily house a nurse for the summer.

They asked if any Registered Nurses already living in the area wanted to take a two year course to become an acting Nurse Practitioner. None did, so they went back to the state for help in finding a nurse. The committee knew that another summer without a nurse wouldn't be prudent.

It wasn't possible to get a nurse for the summer of 1970, but after much work a Master's Level nurse on loan from the State Health Department came to the Valley on September 1. Considered a Pilot Project, the nurse worked in the Valley for ten months until funding could be obtained for a permanent nurse.

The Committee looked hard all summer to find suitable housing and facilities for the nurse. After much searching they rented a cabin in the Wapiti Motel behind the Elkhorn Restaurant about a mile north of Seeley Lake on Highway 83. The cabin had five rooms.
The first room housed the waiting area where the secretary sat at her desk with an aging Remington electric typewriter, a few chairs and a grumbling gas heater.
The kitchen was in the same room as the waiting room. Two bedrooms served as examination rooms and the nurse lived in the third bedroom. One bathroom served all. The rent for the cabin over the ten month period was $700.

Furniture was "begged or borrowed." The chairs were from the basement of St. Patrick Hospital. The typewriter was on loan from the high school. The exam table was a maternity table donated by a retiring physician.

The first nurse was Elsie Toavs. Her $1000 a month wage was paid by the state. In addition, the community charged $4 per house call and $2.50 for each office visit to cover the cost of the facility, the secretary's wages and supplies. Two local nurses were also hired on a part time basis to fill in for Elsie when she was away.

Elsie was an energetic and enthusiastic nurse that did much to help the communities of Seeley Lake, Ovando, and Condon. When her ten months were over she returned to Helena and went on to help other rural areas start their health care facilities.

At the end of that time the State hired Wilma Nickolson, to be the Community Health Nurse. She was "sometimes crusty, always caring registered nurse" who "threw over a teaching job at Butte Vo-Tech Center to work alone as a community health nurse in the backwoods."

Wilma remembers that friends at the Department of Health asked her if she would like the position. She thought, "I might just as well," because she wasn't happy teaching and she would "only be there a year." Wilma was the Community Health Nurse for the next 26 years.

Wilma's main duties as the Community Nurse included seeing patients at the Health Center, making home visits and being on call 24 hours a day. She also served as the school nurse providing services for preschool roundup, athletic physical exams, dental, vision and hearing checks, immunizations and first aid.

In addition she was the nurse for Pyramid Lumber Company and held adult screening clinics such as Blood Pressure checks in Ovando and Condon. Later, she could no longer serve in the Ovando area because it was in a different county, but folks from there still used the Health Center because it was closer than Deer Lodge or Missoula.

One of the first things Wilma did was find a "real" ambulance for the community. She drove to Idaho to retrieve it. In 1987 it became the responsibility of the Volunteer Fire Department and QRU (Quick Response Unit).

She was also glad that Seeley Lake had a pharmacy, which was opened in 1962. Not only did they provide supplies and fill prescriptions, the presence of the pharmacy was one of the State's stipulations for allowing a nurse to work in the community.

The only thing Wilma wouldn't do was deliver babies. "When the Health Center Board hired me I told them at our first meeting that I absolutely would not deliver babies," and with a chuckle she told this story, "It wasn't but three months later the chairman of the board called me one night to say that his wife was in labor and needed to get to the hospital fast. We had to stop at a turn out on Salmon Lake and deliver that baby. I just wrapped the baby up, laid it up on the mother's chest and said, Drive.”

During the first few years funding was always a problem and since they operated on grants they were always writing grant applications. "Wilma worked hard for those grants and if she didn't get it from one angle, she went at it from another."

Their hard work paid off and over the first four years they received many grants, including those from the WICHE Mountain States Regional Medical Program, the Taylor Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Montana Bicentennial Administration.

Along with the grants they also charged fees of $5 for an office call plus supplies and $8 for a home visit plus supplies. That still wasn't enough so they held bake sales, auctions and worked booths selling hot chocolate and coffee at celebrations to earn money for the Center.

In 1973 the SOS Committee formed a Hospital District to allow the Center to obtain mill levy support gathered in the form of taxes. The Center operated with a mill levy that the community voted on every two years. In other words, the communities had decided to tax themselves to pay for a new Clinic.

In 1974, with the mill levy and a grant from Revenue Sharing from Missoula County a new Clinic was built on land donated by the late Thelma Carnes, who lived in Seeley. She and Architect, Shirley Hautzinger designed the Clinic. It was located on SOS Lane off Morrell Creek Road and was called the Thelma Carnes Memorial.

After the Clinic was built a succession of doctors worked off and on there. "And," Wilma laughed, "every one of them called me boss."

In 1974, Dr. Walter Peschel, a physician from North Dakota just starting a practice in Missoula, approached the Clinic and asked to work there to build his practice. He paid rent for the use of the building and an "appropriate salary" to Wilma and Sandi for their services. His only request was that the Clinic provide a properly shielded room to house a used x-ray machine that he owned. The Board agreed. Dr. Peschel worked one day a week at the Clinic for about a year until his practice in Missoula grew so much that he could no longer work in Seeley.

After a while, Wilma called Dr. Herman Schreiber, a retired doctor from Florida who had recently moved to Condon to ask if he'd like to help. Dr. Schreiber began working two days a week at the Clinic in 1980. Over the next six years the caseload increased and in 1986 he began working a four-day schedule.

After nearly ten years with the clinic, Dr. Schreiber retired for good. Left without a doctor and a large patient load the Board decided that it was time to seriously recruit a doctor. Several doctors were interviewed and the Board chose Dr. Robert Nelson from Great Falls who was hired in 1990. Dr. Nelson worked full time for the clinic until 1996.

During this time other changes in Health Care were taking place. Helicopter Ambulance service from Kalispell was available in 1980. By 1981 an office visit cost $20. Computers were added to the Clinic in 1986. Two nurses and two secretary/bookkeepers were needed to keep up with the demands. Things were getting complicated and so was financing.

By 1997 the Hospital Board was $106,000 in debt to Missoula County. "Faced with the option of closing the Clinic or seeking an outside alliance the Board contracted with Caron Corporation, a subsidiary of St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula for the daily operation of the Clinic.

Caron Corporation hired Ben Lindemen, a Physician's Assistant, and Cindy Gallea, a Nurse Practitioner to work part time at the Clinic. Family Practitioners from the Western Montana Clinic in Missoula provided services on a rotating basis.

The Board learned that they could gain additional funds by being designated a Rural Health Clinic. To do this the building had to be upgraded to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was possible to do at the old clinic, but would cost just about as much as a new facility. The Board decided to build a new one with higher visibility on Highway 83.

The Board applied for and received a $400,000 zero interest loan from Blackfoot Telephone Cooperative in Missoula to build the new facility. The loan is to be paid back in ten years. The Chutney Foundation in Ovando awarded the District a $150,000 grant. The sale of the old Clinic provided $75,000. All that totaled $650,000, but that was still $135,000 short the cost of the new facility.

The Board simply stepped out in faith and asked the community for donations. The Chutney Foundation gave another $50,000 and the community responded with overwhelming support and commitment. They achieved their goal in one year with donations from the community and friends from all over.

Land for the new facility was purchased in January of 2000. Construction started in June of 2000. The new Health Center boasts a helicopter pad, emergency procedure room, three exam rooms, an x-ray/lab and nurses' station and room to expand. The new Seeley Swan Medical Center opened its doors in December of 2000 at 3050 Highway 83 North.