The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a decision by the district court and upheld the City-County Board of Health’s regulations regarding the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act and smoking shelters. The Supreme Court issued its opinion in mid-November and remanded part of the case back to the district court for further proceedings regarding the claim of selective enforcement by Totem
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The county has named Trisha Garnder as the new Cascade County City-County Health officer. Gardner has worked for 10 years at CCHD and most recently was the interim prevention services division manager and privacy officer. The position has been vacant since Tanya Houston left to work for Alluvion in March, though the county contracted with Alluvion for Houston to continue
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Alluvion Health split from the county as of the first of the year, but has been operating in some county facilities and handling the billing for the Cascade County City-County Health Department. There’s been other areas of crossover as well, including Tanya Houston continuing her duties as the health officer for the county after moving to Alluvion. The non-profit health
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Gov. Steve Bullock has directed the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services to implement emergency administrative rules to temporarily prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. “Young Montanans are using e-cigarettes at an alarming rate, while officials investigate the possible causes of a national outbreak of e-cigarette-related injury and death, leaving us at a crossroads,” Bullock said in a press
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Alluvion Health has been awarded $237,000 from the Health Resource Service Administration that the agency will use to expand the availability of Medication Assisted Treatment, or MAT, services to combat opioid addiction. The funding will be used to train additional providers so that they can prescribe Suboxone, a medication that blocks the effects of opioids so a patient can’t get
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The future of the Cascade City-County Health Department is uncertain. Since the county split with what is now Alluvion Health, a private nonprofit that took many county staffers with it including the health officer and prevention services division manager, the county has struggled to figure out next steps. By the end of a meeting on Sept. 18 between the County
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The Cascade City-County Health Department is hosting flu shot clinics this month. Adults age 18 and older can get their immunization from the comfort of their own vehicle at the Drive Through Flu Shot Clinic on Sept. 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Montana Expo Park. Whether you have a car, truck, four-wheeler, bike or moped this is an
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Alluvion Health has received a $167,000 grant through the Health Resource Service Administration to increase youth access for behavioral health services. The funding will allow Alluvion to expand services to additional schools in the community, increasing capacity for behavioral health services for youth, according to a release. Alluvion Health launching direct primary care program available to the public The money
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Rural Dynamics in Great Falls has been awarded a $50,000 Healthy Kids, Healthy Families grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. Rural Dynamics is developing a program to help Montanans be more financially astute, therefore reducing the likelihood of financial stress and the health risks and costs associated with it. “Financial stress takes a real toll on mental
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Medical staff at Benefis Health System spent Friday learning to prepare for the worst. The hospital is conducting mass casualty incident training for the non-provider staff, which includes nurses, certified nursing assistants and more. The exercise was designed to train staff, who deal with emergencies on a daily basis, for a major event such as an explosion, a vehicle driving
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