Big Sky Care Center

Nursing Home

Updated Jun 1, 2022 by Nick Reese

Historical Rating

See Rating Overview

Big Sky Care Center's website

2475 Winne Ave,
Helena MT 59601

(406) 442-1350

27.49% estimated occupancy ¹

Located in Helena, Montana, Big Sky Care Center is one of only three available facilities in the area. Sporting an overall grade of B+, this facility should work for most prospective patients. This facility definitely has plenty of good features. This nursing home's strong profile was highlighted by its nursing grade, which we will address in the next paragraph.

Quick Details

Accepts Medicare ¹
Accepts Medicaid ¹
No CCRC
Has Resident Council
No Family Council
For profit - Limited Liability company
Offers Inpatient Rehab

Specialized Services

Personal Care
Medication Management
Home Making
Transportation
Medical Transportation
Speech Therapy
Dentistry
Wound Care
Occupational Therapy
Podiatry
Physical Therapy
Nutritional Counseling
Recreational Therapy
Pain Management
Audiology

Registered Staff Hours

Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2021)

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Nurse Quality

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home received an A+ for nursing. The nursing grade weighs several components, but the primary consideration is the quantity of nurse hours spent with patients. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a system of moving residents at least once a day.

Facility Inspections

Adding to its impressive category grades, we gave this facility an B+ for our inspections rating. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection scores. One critical factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some can be quite minor. This particular nursing home received 9 deficiencies on its inspection report. Overall, this is still a good inspection report, but we'd always recommend looking into any deficiencies you find troubling.

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Short-term Care Quality

This facility received an impressive short-term care score as well. We gave it one of our better scores in that area with a score of B+. In the area of short-term care, we strive to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.5 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

Long-term Care Quality

The next category we assessed was long-term care, where this facility was awarded a grade of C. This actually proved to be this facility's weakest category. This is still not a poor grade. In crafting these long-term care ratings, we quantify the facility's ability to maintain its permanent residents' health and quality of life. Once we assessed the volume of nursing care, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination data. We were pleased to find that this nursing home vaccinates 96.47059 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Finally, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Rating Over Time

Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.

Big Sky Care Center Quality Metrics

Minimizes Pressure Ulcers

In Big Sky Care Center, 7.84% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers

This tells you the percent of patients who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage resulting from remaining in the same position for an excessive period of time.

Minimizes Serious Falls

In Big Sky Care Center, 5.36% of Patients had Serious Falls

This is the percentage of residents that have had a major fall. Falls resulting in serious injuries are routinely the result of lower quality nursing care. More supervision reduces the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.

Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections

In Big Sky Care Center, 3.38% of Patients had UTIs

This tells you the percent of patients who suffered from a urinary tract infection. These infections could be linked to poorer hygiene.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication

In Big Sky Care Center, 15.75% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication

This tells you the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic drugs are prescribed to residents for many medical conditions, such as cognitive disorders. Sadly, in limited cases, increased usage of these drugs may suggest a nursing home is using these drugs to subdue residents.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication

In Big Sky Care Center, 15.28% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication

This metric measures the percentage of long-term care patients who were given antianxiety drugs. These drugs are generally prescribed to patients experiencing depression or anxiety.

Managing Depression Among Residents

In Big Sky Care Center, 5.4% of Patients

This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients exhibiting symptoms of depression.

Appropriate Vaccine Usage

In Big Sky Care Center, 93.07% of Patients

This is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay residents who have received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home residents, making these vaccines critical to patient health.

Residents Maintain Autonomy

In Big Sky Care Center, 15.83% Percentage of Patients

This tells you the percent of residents who needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of needing for assistance with ADL's may be a sign of the erosion of a resident's well-being.

Ability to Keep Residents Mobile

In Big Sky Care Center, 20.1% Percentage of Residents

This metric tracks the percentage of long-term patients that retained mobility levels.

Hospitalizations

In Big Sky Care Center, 1.08 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days

This datapoint measures the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of patient care.

Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations

In Big Sky Care Center, 20.1 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized

This indicates the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term care.

Short-term Care: ER Visits

In Big Sky Care Center, 12.52 Percentage of Patients

This is the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term care. There is typically a correlation between reduced emergency room visits and the overall quality of care.

Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement

In Big Sky Care Center, 73.8% Percentage of Resident

Measures the percentage of short-term patients that experienced functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. Some argue that this is a measure of rehabilitation services.