SANDPOINT — Certain criteria are required for Idaho nursing homes to earn the L. Jean Schoonover Excellence in Caring Award, but one thing that sets Valley Vista Care of Sandpoint apart from others, said administrator Jeri Hererra, is the staff.

They are not only caring, Herrera said, they are a team — a family. Delilah McGhee, Valley Vista's director of nursing, echoed Herrera's sentiments.

"(The staff) are absolutely amazing," McGhee said. "They genuinely care about the residents here — it's more than just a job for them."

This month, Valley Vista received its fifth consecutive L. Jean Schoonover award, which is named in honor of L. Jean Schoonover who was the chief of the Bureau of Facility Standards until her death in 1994.

"It is actually a pretty prestigious award in the state of Idaho, specifically for skilled nursing facilities that are Medicare and Medicaid certified," Hererra said. "Not a lot of facilities get this."

Valley Vista is a Christian-based, not-for-profit skilled nursing facility with care for long-term residents, as well as temporary residents who utilize Valley Vista's therapy department before heading home.

The behavioral units also set the facility apart from others, because Valley Vista specializes in traumatic brain injury and dementia. Although some of the residents in the behavioral units can be "difficult to manage," McGhee said the staff "loves" working with them. Herrera said the facility gets no "special breaks" for taking in the more difficult residents, but the staff still provides "excellent care."

After working at different for-profit facilities, Herrera said it is a very different feel working in a nonprofit facility.

"We are not out to get rich off of our residents, we're here to provide a service to them," she said.

Herrera said the facility has a good retention rate with a lot of long-term staff who provide care at a higher staff-to-resident ratio than is required, based on the acuity of the care residents require rather than the rate the state tells the facility to staff at. Every nursing home has a certain amount of turnover, Herrera said, but Valley Vista has been "very fortunate" in building and retaining staff. Continuity in care is "huge" for the residents, getting to know the staff, and the staff know the residents' likes and dislikes.

"It just makes their quality of life much better," Herrera said.

The Valley Vista facility consists of 73 beds, with another 74 in the sister facility in St. Maries. The Sandpoint facility has an outdoor area, a pool, outpatient therapy, and of course, the behavioral units, and the nurses are skilled in a wide array of medical services. 

Herrera said Sandpoint is fortunate to have a facility covering the range of services Valley Vista provides locally.

"And we have fun," Herrera said.

Originally hired in 1967, L. Jean Schoonover served as the bureaus health facility surveyor around the time both Medicaid and Medicare implemented standards for certification in nursing facilities. Schoonover was known for her compassion, fairness and leadership, and was respected and admired by her peers in Idaho and across the nation. She is remembered for her dedication and commitment to the assurance that citizens of Idaho residing in health care facilities receive the highest quality of care.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.