Brookdale Overland Park

One of the many reasons this place received a great overall grade is that it received an A+ in short-term care. In determining our short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our goal is to formulate a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final measure we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 7 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

Adding to its impressive category scores, this facility also excelled in the area of inspections, where it received an A. Perhaps the most important factor we consider in determining our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places with higher grades in this area most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were severe based on CMS' scale. A few relatively minor deficiencies are not necessarily something to panic about.

Adding to its impressive resume, this nursing home also excelled in our nursing category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category. The nursing rating analyzes several components, however, the main one is the quantity of nurse hours spent with patients. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The final category we scored was long-term care. We awarded this facility one of our higher grades in that category, with a grade of B. Even though this wasn't as favorable as some of this nursing home's other grades, it is nevertheless a fine grade. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. Once we finished looking at the volume of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia sadly is often a life or death ailment for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a nursing home does not leave its residents vulnerable. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.