Dr. Blake Wolf Montana, MD

About Me

Hi I’m Blake Wolf Montana MD, FACEP. I’m an emergency medicine physician. I chose Emergency Medicine for a number of reasons including lifestyle, personal temperament, as well as a good match with my skills. Originally, it was far from my first choice. However, as part of a naval internship, all the physicians were required to do a rotation in Emergency Medicine. I was not particularly looking forward to mine – in fact I was dreading it! However within the first week I was realizing that it was not as bad as I had feared. By half way through, I was actually enjoying myself, and as the end of the rotation neared, I realized that I was having more fun then I ever had in medicine before and that I should find a way to do a second month and consider eventually pursuing a residency. (Which of course I subsequently did!)

I think one of the things I like best is the variety and the feeling of being prepared to handle whatever comes through those doors. It’s a bit like being …the country doctor of lore – but with the back up of all those high-tech supports at my beck and call. I also like the immediate gratification available with Emergency Medicine. Someone comes in with a complex facial laceration - you sew it up – it looks better! Another person has bad abdominal pain – you establish that appendicitis is extremely likely – they are off to surgery! Next a budding gymnast comes in with a bent and broken arm– you make it straight again and arrange orthopedic follow up! It’s all good. Finally, as strange as it sounds, I like the pace and the unpredictable often chaotic aspects of the ED environment.

I did my formal Emergency Medicine training at Ohio State University; a regional trauma center associated with its own poison control center and life flight program. Upon graduation I ran the Emergency Department of Twenty-nine Palms Naval Hospital. After Twenty-nine Palms, I began work at Desert Hospital, a regional trauma center in the Palm Springs area.

Practicing Medicine at Kaiser Permanente

I started working for Kaiser Permanente in 1999 as a part time Emergency Physician at Kaiser Vallejo, and then started full time at North Valley Kaiser Permanente in 2001. The main reason I enjoy working at Kaiser Permanente is that it provides me an environment where I can practice the highest quality Emergency Medicine coupled with reliable follow up availability. I also really value that at KP I can concentrate solely on my clinical role without being distracted by business issues, etc. As noted above, prior to joining Kaiser, I worked in a number of significantly varied and well respected healthcare environments. In retrospect, none of these lives up to my Kaiser experience. The bottom line is that I have chosen to work at Kaiser Permanente because I have found no better place to practice Emergency Medicine industry wide. I am able to provide better, more comprehensive care for my patients here then anywhere else I’ve worked. That’s important to me and I think our patients are beginning to realize it as well, which makes it all the better. I would not work anywhere else in the USA!