Bella Terra of Billings

Although we gave this facility a terrible overall grade, we awarded it a grade of B- for our nursing rating. When calculating a nursing home's nursing score, we weigh the quantity of hours nurses commit to patients as well as the levels of training of those nurses. This particular facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This figure is significantly below average. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics. While this place got dinged a bit for its nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality metrics. With fewer than five percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it did remarkably well in this metric. This can be an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as employing a policy of moving a patient more frequently.

Remarkably, we gave this nursing home a grade of B- for its short-term care rating, which really isn't a bad grade. In computing our short-term care scores, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The goal is to formulate a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of different nursing homes. We found that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. It provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. It is still important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.4 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

Another concern is the F this nursing home received in the category of long-term care. If you are looking for services other than rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each nursing home's long-term care scores. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination records. We were optimistic to discover that this facility vaccinated 96.75926 percent of its residents against pneumonia. To our surprise, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home has fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.

Turning the final category of inspections, this nursing home really did not fare well. It received an F in our inspection category. This happens to be our most heavily weighted category in our overall scoring system. For nursing homes that received this bad of an inspection grade, we recommend scrutinizing the severe deficiencies on its inspection report. This facility was assessed 8 deficiencies by CMS. The only positive thing we can say is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that suggest that they posed a threat to patient health or safety. Lastly, this nursing home was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. This is generally a really bad sign. We would never recommend this facility.