Northern Montana Hospital provides compassionate, acute care services to the people of North Central Montana. Our Hospital is the center of a comprehensive system of medical services, staffed with health care professionals that meet the growing needs of our Hi-Line communities. We provide emergency, podiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, family medicine, internal medicine, imaging, in-patient and out-patient surgical services, orthopedics, pharmacy, home-health, sleep study center, dialysis, behavioral health, hospice, and oncology services. Our Care Center offers assisted living, long-term care, and respite care in a compassionate environment with planned activities and pastoral care. If you have a question, concern or comment, please e-mail us here.

 

Northern Montana Hospital welcomes you to try out the new Montana Informed Patient website: www.MTInformedPatient.org. MHA, An Association of Montana Health Care Providers, has created the new site with consumers in mind: “It is designed to help consumers navigate an increasingly complex health care system,” said Dick Brown, MHA President.  Useful information regarding prescription medications, checklists for patients anticipating surgery, care planning, hospice, and wellness suggestions can be easily found. Whenever health care information is presented, remember to check with your own health care provider or pharmacist.  

Northern Montana Hospital volunteers number in the hundreds and they are going strong! Recently, they were awarded the Volunteer Organization of the Year, by the Montana Health Care Association (MHCA). Northern Montana Hospital’s Volunteer program has over 250 members and over half of those members actively volunteer their time at the Hospital and Care Center each week! “The volunteers raise over $25,000 in the Gift Shops each year, and all of that money goes to benefit selected programs in the hospital or Care Center,” said Claire Wendland, RN Director of Volunteer Services and the Senior Connection Program.

One special project the volunteers completed, that got the attention of MHCA for the award, was the “Tub Room Makeovers” completed at Northern Montana Care Center (NMCC). Tub Rooms are located throughout the Care Center facility and have specially designed bath tubs, and shower chairs which are used to bathe residents. Clinically, these Tub Rooms were just fine, with white walls, good lighting and well maintained equipment. However, Wendland said that residents in a Care Center consider the Center their “home” so she and the Hospital Gift Shop Buyer, Mim Tchida and their volunteers decided they would search their Hospital Gift Shop vendors for “vintage décor” items such as the famed, “Gibson Girl” like posters that would be reminiscent of residents’ days gone by.

The gift shop began to collect tin signs which were reproductions of advertisements from 50-70 years ago, such as glycerin soap and lavender. Vintage style quilts, mirrored window boxes with faux flower arrangements, hand crocheted lace curtains, washboards, bird houses, and old mantel clocks were installed with the residents in mind, so they could enjoy the new decorations while they were bathing. The volunteers solicited the Hospital Building and Grounds Director, Jay Burrington, to task some of his crew to repaint the walls from Hospital white to warm tones of pastel colors, altogether creating an atmosphere of happy memories and an aesthetically pleasing array of wall decorations they residents and Care Givers could enjoy. “We are really pleased to receive this award,” said Lori Henderson, RN Care Center Administrator. “This project was undertaken because our goals are to make NMCC a Resident Centered facility, to decrease the institutionalization of Nursing Home Care, and to make the Care Center, overall, a better place to live and work.”

The Volunteers also help deliver the mail to residents and often stop and visit. They assist with the Senior Connection’s Bingo Games and donate $800 yearly for those events. Local historian Toni Hagener volunteers her time through the organization for “Time with Toni,” which consists of readings, singing, trivia and quizzes with residents. Foot Clinics managed by Wendland and a staff of RNs and Volunteers come to the Care Center once a month and they donate $500 a month for people who cannot afford, or whose insurance does not cover the service. They donated over $2000 toward the purchase of gifts for the Care Center Christmas Store and shopped throughout the year for bargains at local retailers.

Volunteens (young teenagers) are also trained to volunteer their time at the Care Center and Hospital. They visit residents, and assist them with letter writing, reading their mail, and even play games with them! Volunteens and Senior Volunteers make decorations, cakes, and assist the Care Center staff with activities for special events, such as Holidays and Birthdays.

“In the past year, the Northern Montana Hospital Volunteers gave 9,579 hours of service to the Care Center. They enhance the quality of life for residents, and their kind and caring ways and their helpful participation in activities genuinely brings pleasure and meaning to the lives of the residents who live there,” said Wendland. For more information about volunteering, contact Claire Wendland at 262-1327.