Here’s some business news in the Missoula area.
The Otto Bremer Trust, one of the nation’s largest charitable organizations, this week announced a third round of grants totaling $14,850,000.
MoFi, otherwise known as the Montana Community Development Corporation, was awarded $2 million to provide low-cost, flexible, patient and easily accessible working capital for Montana businesses working to recover from the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trust’s emergency fund was established in March 2020 to aid the citizens and communities of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin in times of crisis. Over the past year and a half, the trust made two rounds of grants and program-related investments totaling $13 million to more than 300 organizations in the four-state region.
The new grants are being made to Community Development Financial Institutions to allow them to provide badly needed “patient capital” to entrepreneurs and small businesses that continue to struggle due to the economic calamity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen CDFIs were awarded grants based on their applications.
“While certain areas of our economy are growing again, many of the smallest businesses that are key to the health of our communities continue to struggle,” said Brian Lipschultz, co-CEO and trustee at the Otto Bremer Trust. “PPP loans and other forms of government assistance programs have helped. But many of those avenues have come and gone, and still the pain persists. We listened to our community members and are proud to have responded with this groundbreaking program.”
Village Health and Rehabilitation is among the top 13% of skilled nursing facilities in the country, according to the Best Nursing Homes report published in U.S. News & World Report.
“We are thrilled to be named a 2021-22 Best Nursing Home,” said Dee Strauss, executive director at Village Health and Rehabilitation. “This recognition would not be possible without our talented team members and their commitment to providing exceptional service to residents, patients and their families.”
Dee Strauss is married to Missoulian publisher Jim Strauss.
This year’s methodology includes an emphasis on homes meeting certain standards of patient safety, which could limit a home’s ability to achieve a “high-performing” rating. These standards include a minimum threshold for the staff COVID-19 vaccination rate, overuse of antipsychotic drugs and frequent visits to the emergency department, among other criteria. Homes that have below a 75% COVID-19 staff vaccination rate are not considered a leading facility. A significant percentage of short-term rehabilitation and long-term care programs that would otherwise have qualified as “high-performing” were downgraded at the time of publication.
The ratings include data on staffing, success in preventing ER visits and pneumonia vaccination rates, among other metrics. Out of 13,175 nursing homes that received a long-term care rating, 1,063 were designated as high-performing. The short-term care rating incorporates measures of quality including consistency of registered nurse staffing, use of antipsychotic drugs and success in preventing falls. For 2021-22, 13,500 facilities received a short-term rating, while only 1,651 homes earned a high-performing rating.
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