Hospitals

A report from the Montana Healthcare Foundation found that enrollees in Montana’s Medicaid expansion program needed less emergency care after having health coverage.

Montana’s largest hospital system is expanding its resources to become the region’s most comprehensive medical center for injury and trauma care.

Montana’s governor pushed the state’s health workers to seek religious exemptions to a federal mandate to be vaccinated against covid, but the number who have done so is unknown.

Gov. Greg Gianforte is urging unvaccinated health care workers to consider using religious and medical exemptions in order to meet Monday's federal vaccine mandate deadline. He says health care workers should evaluate all their options.

A University of Montana economist estimates $35 million has been spent in the state caring for preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations among the unvaccinated.

The COVID-19 mmicron variant is forcing changes to contract tracing in the state. It's also amplifying staff shortages at hospitals.

The hospital system says the funds will be used to bolster communication between EMS agencies in western Montana and host annual conferences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to shortages of everything from toilet paper to cars. Now the American Red Cross and Montana hospitals say they are experiencing a major shortage of blood donations.

COVID cases over the past week have more than doubled and the number of new cases added each day is growing. Hospitalizations in recent weeks have dropped coming off the state’s recent wave fueled by the delta variant.