Officials plan medical training center for Butte

BUTTE, Mont. – Two Montana entrepreneurs are planning to construct a $35 million medical training center in Butte that aims to support rural health care services.

Pat Dudley and Ray Rogers on Monday announced plans to build the Praxis Center for Innovative Learning, an 82,000-square-foot medical simulation facility.

Officials say part of the facility will be set up as a rural hospital equipped with an emergency room and other hospital units. The project aims to provide hands-on training with advanced practice mannequins in a simulated medical environment.

The two men, co-founders of the National Center for Health Care Informatics, expect the nonprofit training center to bring in more than 3,000 medical personnel each year to train.

Officials expect construction to start early next year and the center to open in 2020.