Two local nursing homes have received the highest rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Just a handful of facilities in the state receive the honor.

Kalispell’s Brendan House and Columbia Falls’ Montana Veterans Home both received five-star ratings, the highest possible score from the federal report.

The facilities are judged on health inspections, staffing and quality measures to reach an overall score.

Kelly Bilau, administrator of Brendan House, was elated with the honor.

“It is an amazing feeling,” she said. “It’s just positive feedback for our staff that they are doing a good job.”

Brendan House, a 110-bed facility owned by Kalispell Regional Medical Center, scored four stars last year and pushed for a top score with minor improvements this year.

Mountain View Care Center in Ronan, The Village Health Care Center in Missoula and the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital TCU in Hamilton also received five stars.

The hospital- and state-owned nursing homes did well in health inspections and with staffing. The third category is harder to gauge. Quality measures look at the happiness and health of patients. Every quarter, the staffs do a survey on each resident to rate mental and physical health.

Both five-star facilities scored just three stars in this category but four or five stars in the other two.

For Joren Underdahl, administrator of the Veterans Home, five stars is nothing new. That facility has never received anything other than five stars since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services changed to that system.

“It’s always nice to hold on to the rating,” he said. “It’s good to see another facility in the valley get one as well.”

The Veterans Home, with 105 beds, benefits from strict scrutiny. Not only does it have the  yearly health inspection, it also has one from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Two facilities in Kalispell and one each in Whitefish, Hot Springs and Browning received two stars, the lowest ratings within 100 miles of Kalispell. Facilities in Ronan, Eureka, Plains and Bigfork scored four stars.

“We were nervous when the government started doing the ratings and putting everything out in public,” Bilau said. “At first. Now we are so happy to see the results.”

Brendan House, which turned 29 years old on April 1, has several employees who have been with the facility for since it opened. Bilau said it was great for those employees to be fully recognized.

To see full results for any area code in the United States, visit http://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html.