November 21, 2025

The President’s Message is published in the MHA Weekly News Report, a member only publication of the Montana Hospital Association. To subscribe, click here.

The backlog of federal funding awards and carryover requests is improving, which means our next challenge for the Montana Health Research and Education Foundation (MHREF) programs will be to push out education and programming more quickly due to shortened timelines.

The Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) is gearing up for an extremely busy winter and spring, hosting their annual Medical Response Surge Exercise in each Health Care Coalition, as well as developing a Cybersecurity Assessment Plan and an Extended Downtime Healthcare Plan that will be shared with all of their healthcare partners. They are currently working to secure Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS) in conjunction with Advanced Disaster Life Support (ADLS), Hospital Emergency Response Training (HERT), Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS), Certified Hospital Emergency Coordinator (CHEC) training, and numerous Lunch & Learn opportunities to include Highly Infectious Disease, Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and Public Information Officer (PIO) training in communities and hospitals across the state.

These offerings not only strengthen emergency preparedness and help ensure staff are ready to respond on a “bad day,” but also help hospitals meet Emergency Preparedness survey requirements and maintain trauma designation status. Hospitals approaching a trauma designation renewal are encouraged to reach out to Cindee McKee, HPP Director, at cindee.mckee@mtha.org early so the HPP team can support required trainings and documentation.

Please keep an eye out for upcoming HPP training announcements; it’s going to be a full and fast-paced schedule.