BUTTE — Over the past decade, a nursing home in Butte has been flagged for poor performance by state and federal agencies - but now they are considered the top nursing home in Montana and they’re receiving an award from a nonprofit that works with Medicare and Medicaid members.
"I’ve always needed somebody, you know, we all do and they’re there to help ya if you want help it’s there and if you don’t they leave ya alone," says Joanne Brown, a permanent resident of the Butte nursing home that focuses on rehabilitation and long-term care.
Brown is enjoying a sunny fall morning with a visit to the chicken coop located in the facility’s large courtyard. She says receiving help with her medication management is a big part of why she moved into Crest Nursing Home.
"Everybody needs somebody to care for them and when they need the extra help to make sure that their needs are met to make sure that they get the medications they need and the therapy that they need is very important," says Jessica Olah, a registered nurse and the nursing director at Crest Nursing Home.
Olah says a good nurse needs to have compassion and caring but, also, a good nurse must be scrupulous when it comes to patient care documentation.
"The best quality is caring about the residents. They have to care and really just do everything with love because it’s not like you’re working at a gas station or at a Walmart. You know, they’re real humans and people have to treat them as such," says Staci Bercier, the administrator of Crest Nursing Home.
Bercier says having a great team is the reason the facility is winning a quality award from Mountain Pacific, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that holds federal and state contracts that allow them to oversee the quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid members.
Mountain Pacific works within Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and Hawaii and U.S. Pacific Territories of Guam and American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to help improve the delivery of health care.
Joanne Brown watches the chickens dart around their coop. She will be 91 years old on November 10. She says over the years she has lived in lots of other places but she has always come back to Butte.
"I’m always back to Butte. The people are just so good here. They’re what you’d call real people if you’ve ever lived someplace else, you know?" says Brown.
Aside from performing essential care to residents, the nurses and staff are there to chat and offer cups of water or even just hold their hands as they make their way down the long halls.
"Our facility is probably the most home-like. We might not be the fanciest and not have been remodeled like the other facilities here in Butte, but we do focus on care and quality of care," says Bercier.
