Birchwood Care Home
715 West 31st Street, Minneapolis MN 55408 · (612) 823-7286 · 97.5% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Birchwood Care Home is a nursing home located in Minneapolis, Minnesota which has 1,022,298 people. We awarded this nursing home an overall grade of B-. A score in this range requires some solid marks. Even in a city offering 54 other nursing homes, this facility should be a sound option. The best part of this facility's report card is is its nursing score. Nursing grades are discussed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 60 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Nurse Quality
While this nursing home's overall grade was decent, it really excelled in the area of nursing. In fact, we gave it an A- for that category, which is one of our highest scores. We weighed the levels of nurses employed by the nursing home, in addition to the quantity of hours the nurses spent with residents, in calculating our rating in this category. This nursing home provides 0 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.
Facility Inspections
This nursing home also excelled in inspections, where it received an B+. Few nursing homes performed as well in this category. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. This facility received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This means that the inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies to pose an imminent risk to patient safety or health. A few minor dings are not something to panic about.
Short-term Care Quality
Another one of this facility's higher category grades came in the area of short-term care. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of B. In determining our short-term care scores, we assess the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This category is considered to be a useful assessment of the facility's rehabilitation services. It doesn't appear that this nursing home submitted information about its staffing of registered nurses or physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.
Long-term Care Quality
Moving on to the final category, we gave this nursing home a D in long-term care. This is the nursing home's worst category grade. Unfortunately, this score hurt the nursing home's overall grade to a certain degree. Long-term care ratings of this caliber generally are a bad sign for the quantity and quality of care provided by nurses and aids, as well as the levels of routine medical care available. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Candidly, we were a bit alarmed this nursing home administered the vaccine to a relatively low 78.85462 percent of its patients. To our surprise, this facility was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. This was its best feature in this category.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Birchwood Care Home Quality Metrics
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percent of patients who have had a major fall. Falls leading to serious injuries are routinely associated with poor nursing care. Closer supervision limits the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percentage of residents that have had a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered by many experts to be a measure of nursing care at a nursing home. UTI's are routinely associated with poor nursing care. Nevertheless, this metric could also be skewed for certain facilities due to varying reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percentage of residents who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic medications may be helpful for many patients, it is important to confirm these drugs are being used appropriately. In limited cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may mean a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is an indication of the percentage of long-term patients who were given antianxiety medication. These medications are generally used to treat patients experiencing depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
Measures the percentage of long-term stay patients showing depressive symptoms. Some experts believe this is a measure of patient quality of care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients who were vaccinated against pneumonia and flu.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is the percentage of residents who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric measures the percent of long-term residents who were able to retain mobility.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term resident care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better