W. Glacier clinic marks 4th season

North Valley Hospital’s clinic in West Glacier will open its doors for a fourth season on Memorial Day, according to emergency room manager Judy Smith.

“We’re in the process of packing up equipment at the Base Lodge clinic at Whitefish Mountain Resort and moving it to West Glacier,” she said recently.

The clinic is based in the West Glacier Fire Hall on REA Avenue, two blocks south from the Going-to-the-Sun Road on River Bend Drive, on the way to the golf course.

Open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the clinic is an urgent care facility that typically handles broken bones and lacerations, strains and sprains, upper respiratory tract infections and headaches, Smith said.

The clinic is staffed by one nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant and a radiology technician. Images from the clinic’s digital X-ray machine are sent online to North Valley Hospital for more detailed analysis.

Glacier National Park logs more than 2 million visitors each year, but the West Glacier clinic also handles patients from raft companies, horseback guides, campgrounds and other outdoor recreation businesses up and down the Canyon. A growing number of visitors to the area are Canadians and senior citizens.

Smith said Xanterra Parks and Resorts maintains a registered nurse at their lodges to take care of company employees, Smith said, and the West Glacier clinic has received referrals from Glacier Park’s lodges in the past.

“We’ve been getting busier every year,” Smith said. “We really want to support and participate in the community, and we’re glad to be there.”

No appointments are necessary, and the clinic will accept insurance cards, including Canadian.

For more information, call the clinic at 406-888-9924 or visit online at http://www.nvhosp.org and click on “Clinics.”