Natalie Moore: A mind for business, a heart for people

By Andrea Busche

When she started her job as finance director at Duluth’s Bayshore Residence & Rehabilitation in 2014, Natalie Moore knew she had a big job ahead of her. First of all, the facility looked and felt like a typical nursing home. The colors were drab. The residents were dispirited. The facility simply didn’t feel like a home.

And, at the time, Bayshore held the unfortunate ranking as the No. 1 worst nursing home in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. This “report card” measured items such as quality of life, family satisfaction, staff retention and other data.

Thankfully, Moore is a woman who knows how to get things done, and she was ready to tackle these challenges head-on.

“I knew I belonged here,” Moore said. “I just had a gut feeling I could do this.”

Bringing in the magic

Fast forward six years. Keeping in mind that she works as Bayshore’s finance director, Moore has used her creative skills, on her own personal time, to give the facility a makeover.

Bayshore now features bright, cheerful colors, a coffee bar and a breakfast area. There are other special touches, such as menu boards, so the residents feel like they are dining at a restaurant. And, best of all: Bayshore is now ranked in the top 40 best nursing homes in the state, due in large part to Moore’s efforts.

Moore truly enjoys bringing that extra spark of happiness to her residents’ lives.

“I’m 40 years old and I wear a unicorn necklace,” she said. “I believe in magic. It may not be real, but if it isn’t, I’m going to create it.”

Inspired by her grandparents

Moore grew up in a small Wisconsin town with three sisters, a stepbrother, and a step-sister. Her mother worked as a deputy county clerk, and her stepfather was an EMT and respiratory therapist.

Moore’s grandparents, both teachers, lived just down the alley. And the kids were welcome anytime.

“Our house was their house,” Moore said.

Moore enjoyed a deep bond with her grandfather. He appreciated and nurtured her self-professed “tomboy” ways, and encouraged her natural interests, which included building and fixing things.

He began teaching her home repair skills at a very young age.

“At 7 years old, I was up on the roof with my grandpa, taking down a chimney,” she said. “He taught me how to patch a hole in a roof, and taught me woodworking skills.”

These skills, a gift and a legacy from her beloved grandfather, would definitely come in handy — both personally and professionally — as Moore progressed through adulthood.

Education and career

Moore graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau

Claire with a bachelor’s degree in business finance. Her first job out of college was for Turning Point Therapy in Duluth, where she handled billing. She then spent a short time at Avanti Healthcare.

Out of the blue, Moore received a personal phone call from the administrator at Bayshore, after he had heard positive things about her work ethic. She accepted an interview, and was hired in 2014.

In her role as finance director, above all, Moore relishes helping the residents. A large part of her job is to be a liaison between residents and entities such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and others, to help residents locate funding for their care.

“Things come up, and sometimes people need to stay longer and can’t safely go home,” Moore said. “If I can help take that worry off of them and fix the situation, it just makes my day.”

Moore also works directly with individual residents to help them pay their bills.

New decor

When it came to updating Bayshore’s decor, Moore began with the lobby.

“I went around with color swatches and asked the residents, ‘What color would you want in your living room?’” Together, they decided on a bright, cheerful shade of teal.

You’ve

Moore later built a coffee bar, so the residents could pretend they were at a coffee shop. She later added signage, featuring directions to the chapel, vending machines, and other landmarks.

A new menu chalkboard was a small, but very important touch.

“I just took an old window and painted it with chalk paint,” she said. “We write the day’s menu on the board each day, and it feels like the residents are going into a restaurant. It just gives them a sparkle in their eye.”

Moore tackled the memory care unit next. She added fresh, colorful paint, a new breakfast area and handcrafted wainscoting.

Two colleagues’ offices also received a facelift, one of whom began to cry upon the big reveal. “That was definitely worth my time and investment,” Moore said.

All of these special updates are done after work and on the weekends, on Moore’s own time, and often with her own personal materials.

“I just love to make people happy,” she said.

Additional updates at Bayshore are on the horizon. Moore plans to tackle the employee break room, followed by the remaining housing units, sometime soon.

Home

• Environmental Education integrated throughout the curriculum

• Art, Music, PE, and Environmental Ed Specialists

• Small Class Sizes

• Busing from Duluth and Two Harbors

Moore loves to utilize her creative skills in her personal life, too. At age 28, she bought a fixer-upper house, which she gutted and renovated, doing all of the work herself. Most of the materials were purchased secondhand.

Moore worked on the home in her spare time, paying for each project in cash along the way. It took her 11 years, but she completed her home last fall.

“It may have taken three years, but I finally have my million-dollar kitchen,” she said with a laugh.

Another hobby of Moore’s is to renovate pieces of furniture, and then drop them off, anonymously, at local thrift stores so they can make a profit. She also enjoys hunting, fishing and snowshoeing.

Moore shares her home with her Labrador/mastiff mix, Max. She has three nephews and two nieces. Her 7-year-old nephew, Richard, is also her godson, and the two have a particularly close relationship. Moore also shares a special friendship with her “adoptive parents,” Byron and Roseanna Jensen.

Sharing kindness

Moore truly enjoys going out of her way to make life a little better for others. This has a large, and direct, impact on the lives of the residents at

Bayshore, among many others.

“You get what you give,” she said. “Giving someone a smile, or just being nice, is free. At the end of the day, all I care about is making people happy.” D

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