A Letter from the President
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your interest in Nightingale Nursing & Caregiving. I’d like to start with a little history and background if you don’t mind. Nightingale began in 1990 as a skilled nursing and care giving company in Missoula, Montana.
In 1996 I joined the company, and after a year of training from the previous owners I was ready to try to do as good a job as they had done. The first thing I focused on was quality. I wanted to be sure the people using our services were getting the best possible service available.
To do that, I realized we needed the best possible employees, and the best employees command the best wages, so we raised wages to the highest paid by any company doing the same type of work. Plus, we began training and auditing in earnest. Then I started visiting every person using our service I could.
Our management team also agreed that in order to know what quality was we would have to do shifts ourselves, which we did regularly. This plan worked so well things are going very well. Let me summarize where we are today:
- We provide the highest quality in home
care available.
- We have the best trained workforce.
- We have the nicest caregivers and nurses.
- We have better pay and benefits than any other in Private Pay or Medicaid home care company.
- We get involved in promoting better pay and benefits to the direct care staff at the local, state, and national level. (See “Hot Topics” for details of past and current efforts and how you can get involved.)
I hope this gives you an insight to the kind of company we are; caring, compassionate, and dedicated to the people who use home care and direct care workers.
Respectfully,
Bill Woody
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Nightingale owners Bill Woody and Bruce Kramer met with Montana's Governor Brian Schweitzer while advocating for Healthcare for Montanans Who Provide Health Care.
Bill and our Director of Policy Mike Hanshew spent many hours lobbying the Montana legislature for the successful passage of the legislation. The healthcare benefit will be available to qualifying Montanans in 2009.
Montana is the first state in the nation to provide funding for health insurance for direct care workers, and the ground-breaking legislation is being studied by advocacy groups in other states hoping to provide a similar benefit for caregivers.
“If we provide health insurance to the people who watch over criminals – which is certainly the right thing to do – shouldn’t we also give it to the people who care for our grandmothers and disabled neighbors?” Mike Hanshw pointed out to the legislature.
We encourage you to also become advocates for home care. Click here for a detailed case study of the Healthcare for Montanans Who Provide Health Care initiative. (PDF file) |
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