Bonner General Health recently secured two grants totaling $5.8 million, which will be used to improve electronic medical records systems as well as to build new multi-specialty procedural spaces at the hospital.
CEO John Hennessy told the Reader that the grant funds originated from the Rural Health Transformation Program, which was authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to empower all states to strengthen rural communities by improving health care access, quality and outcomes.
“The state of Idaho got $186 million in grant funding and there were different buckets that that went into,” Hennessy said. “The ones that were closest to what BGH needed were for infrastructure, for renovation and equipment and technology needs. There was a $97 million grant available for that.”
The Bonner General Health Campus. Courtesy image
Hennessy said that BGH officials have for three years talked about renovating the old ICU space into multi-specialty procedural suites, as well as establishing a new electronic medical records system.
“But the hard part was the funding,” Hennessy said. “Both of these projects fell in line with what the Rural Health Transformation program is all about.”
In October, BGH was notified that they had received $2.1 million to implement a new electronic medical records system as well as $3.7 million to build multi-specialty procedural suites, totaling $5.8 million.
“Right now, we have five different electronic medical records systems,” Hennessy said. “Our hospital has one, our clinic is on another, physical therapy is on another system and hospice and behavioral health on others. They just don’t talk to one another, so from an efficiency standpoint, being able to have everyone on one system is going to make a world of difference.”
BGH will transition to the MEDITECH Expanse, their most up-to-date platform, which will help enhance communication between departments and streamline care. The rollout should take about 14 months, he said, with a targeted completion around January 2028.
Not only will the electronic records system be integrated across all departments, but it will also feature time-saving features, such as login through a badge swipe instead of having to enter passwords after screen timeouts.
The second grant will be used to renovate the former ICU space to build multi-specialty suites that will free up space and time for procedures that don’t need to occur in the main operating rooms.
“Currently at our hospital, we have four operating rooms,” Hennessy said. “What we’ve really noticed is there is a big demand. A lot of the procedures done at the main O.R. don’t need to be done there, they can be done at a procedural setting.”
By building the new suites, BGH will be able to free up time at the main O.R. to alleviate bottlenecks that occur there.
About half of the $3.7 million will be used for renovation, while the other half will go toward purchasing equipment to furnish the rooms.
Hennessy recognized Marketing Manager Kristin Carlson for her work securing these grants.
“She did the bulk of the legwork writing grants,” Hennessy said.
Along with Carlson’s work, Hennessy said a variety of employees at the hospital weighed in on every level to ensure the grants would be dedicated to the most useful purposes.
The grants will help both BGH staff and patients to be more efficient in the future, Hennessy said.
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