BUTTE — With just 30 days' notice, a heart institute located in Butte has been notifying the almost 3,000 patients that they serve in Southwest Montana that they will be closing their doors for good come July.
"It breaks my heart. I mean, I’ve been here for 14 years and I have developed a lot relationships with these patients," says Kelsey Kelly, a registered nurse with the device clinic at Providence Heart Institute.
Kelly manages follow-up care once devices like pacemakers, defibrillators, and loop recorders are implanted into patients. Kelly is one of 10 people on staff at Providence Heart Institute located in the Butte hospital.
"I don’t know where to go. I mean I don’t I don’t know any other doctors. I mean you know it’s hard when you lose a doctor that you’ve been going to for a long time and they know all of your... all the problems that you have," says Gerrald Hayford, a patient.
For six years Hayford has been a patient of Dr. Bill Hall, an interventional cardiologist at the Providence Heart Institute. Hayford's late wife and his daughter have also sought care at the clinic.
"Providence decided to close our clinic down and gave us 30 days' notice, so we have somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 patients that are now lacking cardiology care," says Dr. Bill Hull.
In a letter to patients, the nonprofit corporate healthcare company based in Washington State, says it will work with Intermountain Health to facilitate access to cardiac services but Dr. Hull is one of only three doctors in the state that provide services in his discipline.
The letter does not say why the clinic is closing.
According to a study done by Butte-Silver Bow County Health Department, Heart Disease in the number one cause of death in Montana and the Mining City experiences heart disease at higher rates than the rest of the state and even the nation.
"Caridology care...it’s tough to find somebody that you trust and, I mean, I do have hope in the future that Butte will have another robust program. But, I don't know. You have to stay hopeful," says Kelly.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified Dr. William Hull as William Hall.
