Staff in Optometry, Information Technology, Phone Operators and Supervisor, and Community Health at Nimiipuu Health were honored with the Indian Health Services Director’s Awards for exceptional contributions and commitment to excellence in 2023.

Award recipients were determined in part through patient and employee satisfaction surveys, as well as kudos initiatives, said Executive Director Roberta José-Bisbee.

“I took the top departments that were shining out in regards to successful quality improvement projects, or just being successful in their department with teamwork and outreach with the public,” she said.

Phone operations was a new addition to the hospital, she said. Having a person to talk to was especially helpful for older patients.

“It was actually a recommendation from our tribal membership that they wanted to talk to a real-life person and not get an automated system,” she said. “During COVID, there was a lot of frustration of patients not being able to speak to a live person. We brought back that operator.”

Another area where work with elders shone through was in Community Health programs, José-Bisbee said. Community Health representatives help in a wide range of services, including helping patients get to specialist appointments and physical therapy, as well as car seat and mother-to-be programs.

“As we deal with chronic issues, or health issues like Alzheimer’s or dementia or just getting elderly in general, there’s not a lot of patience,” José-Bisbee said. “We do have many staff that have that gentleness.”

Staff at Nimiipuu Health are constantly working to contribute to the bigger picture, José-Bisbee said. Things like weather closures and days off are few and far between. Staff will often work long hours doing things like medication deliveries, bringing patients to appointments or staying with them during emergency room visits.

Community Health representatives continually showed a dedication to the community to help in whatever way they could, José-Bisbee said, and went above and beyond what was required. That kind of community care, she said, is reflective of long-held values within the community.

“It’s a model that we’ve always followed,” she said. “I had an opportunity to sit with an elder one time, and she said, if there’s a loss in a family, a group of women would go into the home and help with daily chores, help with the care of their family, cooking, cleaning, when that mother couldn’t at that time.”

Staff in Information Technology and Optometry also were honored for their work to help streamline patient scheduling, and IT was recognized for their work maintaining multiple software systems essential for patient care.

“We offer so many different software opportunities here, José-Bisbee said. “It’s just so many moving parts and it’s very complex.”

José-Bisbee said the next major goal for Nimiipuu Health is getting more young people involved in the health field and early nursing programs, especially as the Nez Perce Tribe works to build an assisted living facility.

That 16-bed facility is planned to have construction finished by the end of the year, she said, and begin housing individuals in the spring.

Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @Rachel_M_Sun. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Names of Nimiipuu Health staff recognized

Dr. Ileen Huh, Lydia Munoz, Daniel Vantrease, Rudi Knapik in Optometry; James Penney, Nick Keller, and Amanda Calkins in IT; Leslie Smith, Jackienna Hopkins, Julie Saunders, Alishia West, Tami Wolfe, Cynthia Charles, Julie Keller, Crissy Garcia, Larry Greene, Richard Arthur, Emilie Guzman, Mark Souza, and Sonya Wood in Community Health; and phone operators and supervisor Lucinda Bohnee, Kikeya Sobotta-Clayvon, and Natasha Weaskus.