Southwest Montana News

The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) has announced a plan to consolidate temporary staffing contracts at health care facilities. This initiative aims to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and streamline contract administration within the agency.

Currently, each DPHHS health care facility maintains multiple contracts with companies that provide temporary traveling medical professionals. To address this, DPHHS is seeking proposals for a new master contract for these services.

“Due to continuous health care workforce shortages, DPHHS facilities must at times leverage travelers to fill our critical staffing needs,” said DPHHS Director Charlie Brereton. “As part of our ongoing facilities reform, we devised this new approach to allow for a competitive bid process that could result in substantial savings to the state. While utilization of travelers is a longstanding practice that has spanned multiple administrations, the Department is committed to ensuring their appropriate use and reevaluating ways to reduce associated costs across our facilities.”

The Request for Proposal (RFP) involves five state-run facilities: Montana State Hospital, Montana Mental Health Nursing Care Center, Intensive Behavior Center, Montana Chemical Dependency Center, and the Montana Veterans Home. The Southwest Montana Veterans Home and Eastern Montana Veterans Home are excluded from this proposal as they manage their own staffing under existing private contracts with DPHHS.

The RFP was posted on the Department of Administration’s State Procurement website today. Interested parties can search ‘Facility Staffing Services’ on the site.

“DPHHS encourages existing contractors and other vendors to submit a proposal for consideration,” Brereton stated. “We anticipate awarding the contracts in the coming months.”

Brereton assured that current assignments at DPHHS facilities will not be affected by this change. New assignments will be made through the new contracts as they become available. He also noted that the new RFP is intended to improve operations at Montana’s state-run health care facilities.

To enhance accountability and improvements through a unified reporting structure, DPHHS has consolidated all state-run health care facilities under one division led by a Chief Health Care Facilities Officer. This position oversees managing operations of the Healthcare Facilities Division and developing policies that promote patient safety and quality care.