May 29, 2026

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.

You know summer is approaching in Montana when conversations begin turning to fire season.

Healthcare is not unimpacted. Here in Helena, where the South Hills place our office and our next-door neighbors Shodair and St. Peter’s Health within a wildland-urban interface, wildfires are a real, local concern.

While wildfires and other natural disasters are certainly focus for healthcare and community response planning, preparedness today extends far beyond traditional emergencies. Healthcare organizations must also be ready to respond to cyberattacks, technology and network disruptions, hazardous material incidents, mass casualty events, and other emerging threats that can quickly impact patient care and community safety.

Is your organization prepared? The Healthcare Preparedness Program — a partnership between the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) and the Montana Health Research & Education Foundation (MHREF) — continues to play an essential role in strengthening Montana’s readiness capabilities.

Over the past several months, the program has supported significant advancements in emergency preparedness training and coordination across the state. The program has expanded access to nationally recognized disaster preparedness education through Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS), Advanced Disaster Life Support (ADLS), and Certified Healthcare Emergency Coordinator (CHEC) trainings. Through collaboration with SIM-MT Montana and Montana’s Health Care Coalitions, Montana is now officially certified as a National Disaster Life Support training site — an important milestone that strengthens long-term readiness capacity within our state.

Another highlight is the Advanced Hazmat Life Support (AHLS), an internationally recognized program that equips healthcare professionals to medically manage patients exposed to hazardous materials. The training brought together paramedics, EMTs, physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers in a truly interdisciplinary approach to emergency response. We are especially grateful to Denver Health for sponsoring this training at no cost to Montana participants.

Additional efforts have focused on Hospital Emergency Response Training (HERT) for mass casualty incidents, helping hospital teams strengthen their ability to operate within coordinated community emergency response systems. Beyond formal trainings, the Healthcare Preparedness Program continues assisting hospitals and communities with full-scale exercises designed to test and strengthen emergency response capabilities.

These partnerships, trainings, and exercises help ensure Montana’s healthcare system is ready to respond when our communities need it most. We are grateful to the many hospital leaders, frontline responders, coalition partners, educators, and others whose commitment continues to strengthen preparedness efforts across our state, as well as our dedicated and experienced HPP team members who support their work.

For more information on HPP and available support for your organization, please reach out to Health Care Coalition Director Cindee McKee at cindee.mckee@mtha.org or your regional coalition Readiness & Response Specialist: Jarret Curtis (Eastern Montana), Kitty Songer (Central Montana), Jude Waerig (Southern Montana), or James Ouellette (Western Montana).