Cottonwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, the skilled nursing home in Durango, Colo., has received Align’s Workplace Excellence Award – for the fourth-straight year – recognizing its high scores in engagement with its caregiving staff, benefiting not only its team, but also residents and their families.

Align – a noted customer experience and employee engagement advisor and consultant – designs and promotes the use of resources developed to improve senior care. Partnering with skilled nursing organizations to help seniors live rewarding lives, Align creates processes and tools to increase engagement with older populations and those who serve them. The organization’s approach recognizes the need for simple and practical solutions to address complex problems in the senior care community.  

Align has as its goal to help participating facilities increase engagement both with their own staff and with the seniors they serve. To further this goal, each year Align presents its Workplace Excellence Awards to caregiving facilities that demonstrate exceptional dedication to workforce engagement. This year’s winners completed an employee engagement survey in 2025 and – among the criteria – had at least 80% of their survey participants respond either “Excellent” or “Good” to the statement “Rate us as a place to work.”

“This award means so much to our team, said facility administrator Rachel Peterson. “It is a significant achievement as it reflects our commitment to providing a rewarding and empowering workplace. “Our dedicated team members take great pride in their work, which ultimately creates an environment that benefits everyone – including new and veteran colleagues, residents, and their families,” she added. “We celebrate this honor and thank our staff for all they do.”

‍Cottonwood Earns Additional Honors
‍Additionally, Cottonwood was recently named as a Best Nursing Home for 2026 by U.S. News & World Report. This designation, which Cottonwood has received for three-straight years, is given only to those facilities that satisfy U.S. News’ proprietary assessment of consistent performance in quality measures. Only 19% of U.S skilled-nursing facilities earned the “Best Nursing Home” designation this year.  

Cottonwood also has 5-Star ratings (the highest level) – in both Overall and for Quality Measures by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – based on a nursing home's performance in health inspections, staffing, and quality measures.

Longtime Durango resident Maddy Surdey turned 100 Tuesday, officially earning her the title of centenarian – an honor held by only 0.03% of Americans, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.Maddy, born Madeline Remus, has been a “tough broad” since she entered the world in 1926, according to her four children, Sharon, Allyn, Stephen and Patty.Maddy has survived World War II, a broken hip, a concussion, motherhood, a divorce, depression and a pandemic – all while imparting humor and care on those around her, her children said.The Durango Herald first met Maddy in 2020, when she was photographed speaking to Patty – her youngest daughter – through a window at the Four Corners Healthcare Center during a COVID-19 outbreak at the center.

Eighty-four residents, including Maddy, and 48 staff members contracted COVID, and three people died as of Dec. 12, 2020, according to San Juan Basin Public Health, the former public health department. Allyn said the milestone birthday means even more after seeing her mother experience the outbreak in 2020.“We were very fortunate that she got through,” she said. “We’re grateful for that.”

Maddy moved to the Cottonwood Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in 2023, where she has resided since.

Maddy grew up in Forest Park, Illinois, with her mother, father and older brother, Raymond, who was four years older and whom she greatly admired.

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Garnering national recognition for the third-straight year, Cottonwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, in Durango, Colo., has been recognized as a Best Nursing Home for 2026 by U.S. News & World Report.  

The annual Best Nursing Homes ratings, now in their 15th year, assist prospective residents and their families in making informed decisions in consultation with their medical professionals about where to receive short- or long-term nursing home care. The designation of Best Nursing Home is given only to those facilities that satisfy U.S. News’ proprietary assessment of consistent performance in quality measures.  Only 19% of U.S skilled-nursing facilities earned the “Best Nursing Home” designation this year.

“We’re incredibly flattered to receive this U.S. News & World Report honor for the third year in a row, earning recognition for both short-term rehabilitation and long-term care,” facility administrator Christy Bradley said. “This award means so much to our residents and care team. Everyone has significant pride in their work.”  

Cottonwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center (formerly named Cottonwood Inn) also has 5-Star ratings (the highest ratings) – both Overall and for Quality Measures by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) – based on a nursing home's performance in health inspections, staffing, and quality measures.  “We have worked very hard to be the only skilled nursing facility in La Plata County that has earned a 5-Star overall CMS rating. It reflects the consistency, heart, and high standards our staff bring to residents every single day,” Bradley added.  

The U.S. News Best Nursing Homes methodology factors data such as resident care, safety, and outcomes. To calculate the Best Nursing Homes ratings, U.S. News evaluated each nursing home's performance using a variety of data obtained from CMS. Both short- and long-term ratings include data on consistency of registered nurse staffing, use of antipsychotic drugs, and success in preventing ER and hospital visits.  The long-term care rating also includes measures of whether a home changed ownership and how well it was staffed on weekends. The short-term rehabilitation rating also includes measures of a home's success in preventing falls, averting serious infections, and making sure residents are able to return home.  

According to Bradley, “Short-term rehabilitation is truly where Cottonwood shines. Our goal is simple: help people heal, regain independence, and get back home safely and confidently. To do that, we provide comprehensive, individualized rehabilitation services delivered by our in-house therapy team – some of the most skilled and experienced therapists in the area. We’re also proud to offer aquatic rehabilitation in our heated therapy pool to make recovery more comfortable and effective.”  

Bradley attributes this success to Cottonwood’s caring staff. “Thanks to their efforts, nearly 100 residents successfully complete rehabilitation at Cottonwood and return home each year. They help our residents during some of life’s most challenging moments,” she said. “Most importantly, these honors reinforce our commitment to provide the best short-term rehabilitation and long-term care in our community.”