Chariton Specialty Care

While this facility earned a decent overall score, its inspections rating is notably better than its overall score. Due to a strong government inspection report this year, it received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. Inspection grades account for several factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this area tend to have few severe deficiencies. This place received 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered severe. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of these deficiencies an immediate threat to patient health or safety. A couple minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B. Our nursing score weighs a host of datapoints. The most heavily weighted factor is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home averages 0.3 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 facility Iowa in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a system of moving patients more often.

The next highest category we gave this facility in any area came in the area of long-term care, where we gave it a C. Our long-term care grades are more meaningful for residents requiring more conventional assistance related to activities of daily living. On top of considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 98.064514 percent of its patients, which is more than the majority of nursing homes. This facility keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Turning to our last area, we awarded this facility a D for our short-term care category. This is the facility's least impressive category rating. Our short-term care ratings are thought to be most important for those requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates additional skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Considering its poor score in this category, we were not surprised to discover that this facility provides significantly fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents that ultimately returned home from this facility. This nursing home didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 4 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was well off the national average.