Avera Creighton Care Centre

On top of being a first rate facility overall, this nursing home performed well in our inspections category, where it received a grade of A+. Very few nursing homes fared this well in this category. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this category tend to have few severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This tells you the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also want to note the fact that this facility was awarded a top-shelf grade of A in our long-term care category. Nursing homes that receive this kind of grade in this category typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure residents are well cared for. After looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents healthy. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. The nursing rating is based on several factors, many of which are based on nursing hours. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of turning patients at least once a day.

The last area we looked at is short-term care, where this nursing home was given a B+. This wrapped up a very strong report card. Only a select few nursing homes earned a B+ or higher in every single category. Short-term care grades are typically used to assess a nursing home's rehabilitation services. In order to offer highly rated rehabilitation services, facilities generally need to provide higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes registered nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists and other types of therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the number of residents that ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.