Caring with Compassion in Western Montana
Providence is one of Montana’s largest health care providers. Our not-for-profit network includes hospitals, physicians, clinics, care centers, hospice and home health programs, and diverse community services across western Montana. With Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson and more than 40 clinics, we’re working together to provide quality care to those in need.
Providence has a long history of caring for residents in Montana since the Sisters of Providence arrived in the state in 1864. Providence has been part of the community for generations. And we’ll be here for generations to come.
Quality Health Care for All
We believe health care is a basic human right. We’re here to serve the evolving needs of the communities we serve and make excellent health care available to all.
Our focus on providing our communities with the full continuum of care makes Providence a model in Montana and beyond. We work collaboratively across traditional boundaries to develop patient-centered practices that help make lifelong quality care accessible and affordable.
- Bruce Bollen, MD
- Damian Chase-Begay
- Ben Davis
- Reed Humphrey, PhD
- Dale Mayer, PhD RN
- Skye McGinty
- Kaia Peterson
- Marc Racicot
- Mark Williams
- Kirk Bodlovic, Interim chief executive and chief operating officer
- James McKay, MD, chief medical officer
- Karen Myers, chief mission officer
- Krissy Petersen, Chief Nursing Officer
- Fran Albrecht, chief philanthropy officer, Providence Montana Health Foundation
- Kelly G. Bagnell, MD, chief of staff, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center
- Kirk Bodlovic, Interim chief executive and chief operating officer, Montana service area
- Jenna Hendrickson, RN, director - Surgical Services
- Samantha Hoogana, director of Inpatient Nursing, Providence St. Patrick Hospital
- Devin Huntley, chief operating officer, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center
- Jani Huston, executive director - Nursing; chief operating officer, Providence Medical Group
- Greg Lind, MD, division chief, Surgery
- Thomas McGuire, executive director of Service Lines & Outreach, Montana service area
- James McKay, MD, chief medical officer, Montana Service Area
- Karen Myers, chief mission officer, Montana service area
- Amber Norris, executive director, Strategy and Business Development
- Krissy Petersen, Chief Nursing Officer
- Stacy Rogge, communications, External Affairs, Montana service area
- Daniel Spoon, MD, division chief, Providence Heart Institute
- Laura Shelton, MD, division chief, Ambulatory Services
- Claude Tonnerre, MD, division chief, Medicine
- Joel Gilbertson, chief executive
- Elizabeth Ransom, MD, chief medical officer
- Scott O’Brien, chief of acute care operations and programs
- Jennifer Gentry, chief nursing officer
- Cara Beatty, MD, Physician Enterprise interim chief operating officer, EWA/MT
- Ben LeBLanc, MD, Physician Enterprise chief executive, Oregon
- Kristen Kothmann, Physician Enterprise chief executive, TX/NM
- John Kleiderer, chief mission officer
- Melissa Damm, chief financial officer
- Mark Gross, chief communication officer
- Debby Gensen, chief strategy officer
- Laurie Kelley, chief philanthropy officer
- Walter Cathey, regional chief executive, TX/NM
- William Olson, regional chief executive, Oregon
- Katy O'Connor, chief human resources officer
Community benefit investments are one way Providence lives its Mission. For generations, we’ve offered a caring hand to those with the greatest need in our community.
In the past year, we devoted millions in community benefit to make sustainable improvements in the health of our diverse communities throughout Montana.
Learn More About Community Benefit in Montana
In the face of rapidly changing health care, our commitment to our Mission to care for everyone remains unchanged. When the Sisters of Providence made their way Montana over 140 years ago, they faced many unknown challenges and succeeded in their simple but significant Mission: to serve the poor, sick and vulnerable - without counting cost - with courage and grace.
This ministry greatly depends on partnering with others in the community who are equally committed to doing good and improving the health of all. Together with community partners we conduct community health assessments to understand what our community needs are. Then with our partners, we identify the greatest unmet needs among the people in the communities we serve. These include lack of access to affordable care; lack of access to mental health services; poverty and homelessness; and barriers to healthy behaviors and disease prevention.
In 1864, four young Catholic nuns began a long journey that not only took them from Montreal to the Pacific Coast, but also forever changed health care in the northwestern United States.
Those nuns – all younger than 30 – traveled by boat to Panama, crossed by land to the Pacific Ocean and then continued by boat to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River. There, they boarded a steamer and traveled upriver to Walla Walla. Then they rode on horseback 500 miles along the newly completed Mullan Road – first across the treeless Columbia Plateau and then through the dense forests of Coeur d’Alene country, where they crossed Coeur d’Alene Lake on a flatboat.
The final leg of their journey had the young nuns crossing the Bitterroot Mountains at what is now Lookout Pass and descending to the Clark Fork River. They arrived at the St. Ignatius Mission south of Flathead Lake just before winter set in, in October 1864, and became the first Sisters to reach the new Montana Territory.
The sisters knew little about their destination. But, their mission was clear: to serve the community’s unmet needs, particularly among the poor.
