As the number of Montanans hospitalized with COVID-19 reached its highest level since winter this week, Gov. Greg Gianforte said his administration has secured an agreement to make six hospital beds at the Fort Harrison VA medical center available for patients who don’t otherwise qualify for health care through the Veterans Affairs system.
As of Friday, state health authorities reported the state has 416 active COVID-19 hospitalizations stemming from the renewed surge in cases that began in July. According to state data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, the state’s record hospitalization count so far in the pandemic was 506 patients on Nov. 20 of last year.
Even without breaking the record, the latest wave of COVID-19 cases, coupled with a shortage of health care workers, has stretched Montana’s emergency care system increasingly thin. Multiple hospitals in the state have said they’re being forced to consider rationing medical services and supplies.
Gianforte said this week he is assigning National Guard members to give beleaguered hospitals additional hands on deck. Including assignments to Livingston, Whitefish, Kalispell and Plains announced Friday, the state now has 124 guard members assigned to health facilities around the state.
Gianforte’s office and the state Department of Public Health and Human Services have also issued an emergency rule intended to make it easier to free up hospital beds by transferring patients between facilities.
The new agreement with the VA gives Montana hospitals permission to transfer patients to as many as two acute care beds and four medical surge beds at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Fort Harrison hospital in Helena. The governor’s office says the VA will accept patients “if it has the capacity and capability to provide required care.”
“With more hospital beds available, hospitals now have another tool in their toolbox to treat Montanans in need of care as their systems are strained,” Gianforte said in a statement.
The governor also re-upped his call for unvaccinated Montnans to consider getting a shot, calling it “the best solution to this crisis.”
“We will not mandate vaccination in Montana,” Gianforte said, “but these vaccines are safe, they work, and they can save your life.”
To date, the state has recorded 1,945 deaths officially attributed to the virus, including 68 in the last week.
latest stories
Montana ban on gender-affirming care for minors temporarily blocked in court
A state district court judge in Missoula has blocked Montana’s ban on medical care for minors with gender dysphoria from taking effect while a lawsuit over its constitutionality continues, finding that the new law appears to have “no rational relationship to protecting children.”
Will Bozeman learn from Missoula’s urban camping mistakes? Or is it the other way around?
Missoula’s leaders, struggling with their own complex homelessness issues, are likely to view Bozeman’s tenuous approval of an urban camping ordinance as a green light to move forward with restricting the same activity.
Montana Supreme Court sides with Knudsen, kills tax cap initiative
The Montana Supreme Court upheld Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s decision to block a proposed ballot initiative that could have asked Montana voters to place a hard cap on property tax collections next year.