Wakita CHC

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A- for our nursing grade. There are a variety of factors included in this category. Most of these criteria reflect the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a policy of moving residents at least once a day.

Additionally, this facility also was given favorable short-term care grades in our assessment. In fact, we gave them one of our more favorable scores in that area, with a grade of B+. In computing our short-term care ratings, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The purpose is to formulate a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this nursing home provided data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

Additionally, this nursing home also was awarded favorable long-term care scores in our assessment. In fact, we gave it one of our more favorable scores in that area, with a grade of B. Facilities that receive this kind of grade in this category typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure patients are well cared for. After we finished assessing the quantity of nursing care, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 95.121956 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is often a dangerous illness for nursing home patients so we like it when a facility doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to the last category we assessed, this nursing home received a good grade in the area of inspections as well. We awarded it a grade of B- for that category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating these inspection grades. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being quite insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.