Atchison Senior Village

Although this facility's overall score was not a highlight, it did receive a very good score in the category of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a B+ for that category, which is one of our better scores. Inspection grades are based on many items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key thing to look for on these inspections. Most importantly, you should avoid facilities that have severe deficiencies linked to risks to resident well being. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even with this deficiency, this was still a relatively favorable inspection report.

This facilities next best category was long-term care. We awarded it a grade of C in this area. This is essentially a slightly below average score in this category. In the area of long-term care, we focus more on the amount of services provided by a nursing home, rather than more healthcare-oriented services. After we finished assessing the volume of nursing care, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. We were pleased to find that this nursing home vaccinates 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. This nursing home keeps its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facilities third best area was short-term care. We gave it a grade of C in this category. This is basically a slightly below average score in this area. Our short-term care grades are vital for residents looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a vast spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The key is determining what bearing this had on quality of care. Lastly, we considered the number of residents that who were able to eventually return home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually well below the national average.

Switching gears to the fourth category, this facility really did not perform very well in this area either. Due to a very poor grade of F in nursing, this is just about as bad as it gets. In calculating our nursing scores, we factor in both staffing levels and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in computing our nursing ratings. This facility fared well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.