Cook Senior Living Center

We want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility outperformed its overall grade in the area of inspections. In fact, it received an excellent inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that area with a grade of A+. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating these inspection scores. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being quite minor. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. A few minor dings aren't necessarily the end of the world.

Additionally, we awarded this facility a B in our short-term care category. This is one of our higher scores. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final statistic we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients that ultimately returned home from the facility. We found that 5.2 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

One of this facility's better category grades was in the area of nursing care. In that area, we gave this facility a grade of B-. In computing our nursing grades, we weigh both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of the nurses. This nursing home provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a somewhat discouraging figure as it is well below average. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got docked a bit for its nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality-based metrics. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it did very well in this metric. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a system of turning residents more often.

Switching gears to the final category, this facility received a C for long-term care, which we consider to be an acceptable score. In the area of long-term care, we weigh the amount of care provided by a facility, rather than more healthcare-oriented services. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is more than the vast majority of nursing homes. This facility also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.