For more than 50 years, RiverStone Health has been home to a passionate team of health professionals, dedicated to our mission of improving life, health and safety for all those who live, work and play in Yellowstone County, Montana.
RiverStone Health’s rich history began on July 1, 1974, when city and county public health services were consolidated as the Yellowstone City-County Health Department under the oversight of Yellowstone County.
In 1984, the RiverStone Health Clinic opened in a little, robin’s egg blue building on South 27th Street. The handful of clinic staff saw more a thousand patients in the first four months in a building about the size of a college basketball court with five exam rooms. Seventy-five percent of those patients were below the poverty level and less than 10% had private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid coverage.
The building, which was known as Deering Clinic when it opened, has continued to grow and evolve to meet the community’s needs.
An expansion in 1996 added about 30,000 square feet to the original building. The construction made space for a partnership between RiverStone Health Clinic and the Montana Family Medicine Residency, (MFMR), the first residency program in Montana. The residency program was created to help train “homegrown” docs, who spend three years based in the Clinic developing their skills in providing preventive and primary care. So far, 178 physicians have graduated from the residency program and 60% of those doctors are practicing family medicine in Montana.
In 2008, we transformed our organization into RiverStone Health. This name was chosen because it reflects our organization: the image of the river represents our ever-changing responsive nature while the stone represents the bedrock of public health upon which the health, safety and well-being of our community is built.
Our blended funding comes from state and federal grants, Medicare and Medicaid, third party insurance, private pay, and county mill levies.
A grant-funded remodeling project in 2010 allowed RiverStone Health to double the size of the dental clinic and renovate the x-ray room. The next year, public health, along with home care and hospice services, moved into a four-story building on the RiverStone Health campus. This freed up more space for the clinic, which includes a dental clinic and the only retail pharmacy on the south side of Billings.
In 2011, the clinic became one of the first eleven teaching health centers in the nation, putting it at the front of a movement to train primary care doctors to fill the expanding need for healthcare providers.
We provide training for primary care doctors through MFMR, educational opportunities for other health professionals, and numerous services that improve family and community health. In our medical and dental clinics, we serve all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
A staff-led fundraising campaign led to the clinic’s most recent expansion in 2018 with the addition of the Ballard Center, a 25,000 square foot clinic with 48 exam rooms.
We continue to add services to meet the needs of our community and are actively engaged in community health initiatives, issues and concerns.
RiverStone Health’s leadership team is a group of forward-looking problem solvers. We have been recognized on the national, state and local levels for our leadership capabilities. In 2024, we celebrate our 50th Anniversary as a public health department and 40th anniversary as Montana’s first Community Health Center.
Today, the clinic staff sees about 300 patients a day in medical, behavioral health, dental, our three rural clinics, three school-based health centers and Healthcare for the Homeless. Our patients make approximately 60,000 visits each year. About 1 in 5 of our patients were below the poverty level and nearly a quarter of them had no insurance coverage.
RiverStone Health currently has approximately 350 employees; we serve Yellowstone and surrounding counties and offer more than 40 different services. Our services range from dental care, primary care, preventive care, public health programs, and home health and hospice.
Our team embodies a commitment to SERVICE, the core values of RiverStone Health:
Stewardship – RiverStone Health is a public trust, a privilege that is and must be earned daily through the thoughtful, intentional, careful, honest, and efficient use of the human and capital resources with which it is entrusted.
Excellence – RiverStone Health is satisfied with nothing less than the best and is committed to continually improving both the process and outcome components of quality within its programs and services.
Respect – RiverStone Health recognizes, appreciates, and values the inherent importance and intrinsic worth of every individual.
Vision – RiverStone Health constantly improves and adapts by understanding the changing healthcare environments in which it operates and empowers its staff to develop innovative solutions to tomorrow’s challenges today.
Integrity – RiverStone Health is forthright and honest in all dealings with internal and external stakeholders, operating in the full view and scrutiny of the public.
Customer-Focused – RiverStone Health is committed to exceeding the expectations of its many customers, broadly defined to include patients, clients, employees, volunteers, and our community.
Evolving – RiverStone Health approaches its work with passion, vitality, and an unwavering commitment to getting better every day. As the world around us changes, we will continue to adapt, create space for exploration, and evolve to best meet the needs of our community.
