PCH welcomes home Burt Kelter
Burt Keltner grew up in the Cabin Creek area of Prairie County, planting roots and raising cattle. Those roots ran deep and although he left the area for several years, he has returned to the family ranch and happily accepted the job of Hospital Administrator/CEO of Prairie Community Hospital. Keltner is thrilled to be home and to be in a position to help the community. He hopes to utilize his life experience as well as business education to promote PCH and help it grow and strengthen. “The most important thing is to leave it better than I found it, and I found it in pretty good shape,” says Burt.
Prairie Community hospital has always been connected to the Glendive Medical Center, paying monthly fees to them for their assistance. Under Burt, there will be a separation of the two institutions that he hopes will mean more money staying at PCH. Services from GMC will be on a contract basis, per need. It should reduce the costs to PCH as well as increase yield. GMC also benefits from the separation, no longer carrying the liability of PCH. Keltner looks forward to continuing to work with GMC CEO Parker Powell to maintain relationships between the facilities.
In his position, Keltner makes himself available to every person who may have concerns, questions or may just need a sounding board. He enjoys seeing the employees of PCH working together to provide such an important part of what the community needs and being there to help them do their job.
Burt finds himself looking to the future and hopes to prepare the hospital for any changes that may come. Currently, the critical access hospital is not required to get certain certifications because of its size. Regardless, Burt is forging forward on obtaining those certifications to be geared up for circumstances changing, such as the area growing or rules becoming more rigid. He hopes to have all of the certifications necessary to provide the best services possible. He intends to obtain a Nursing Home Administrator license over the next year.
Keltner graduated Terry High School in 1994 and went on Dickinson State University where he graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as a Bachelor’s degree in management in just three years. He then went into the finance world, joining finance companies and mortgage banking. He and his wife, Monique, started the first Cold Stone Creamery in Montana in Missoula in 2005 until 2012. They purchased the family ranch and came back to the area while Burt worked in Dickinson. During his several transitions in life, Burt found time to write and self-publish two books and is now working on his third book. Burt, Monique and their children, Kael and Isis, are very excited to be in Prairie County working the ranch near Fallon.
