Donnellson Health Center

Even though we gave this nursing home a terrible overall grade, we gave it a C for short-term care. In calculating these short-term care ratings, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The goal is to formulate a measure for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The more important thing is determining what effect this had on the quality of care. Finally, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.

This nursing home didn't receive glowing government inspections in recent years. We gave it just a D for our inspections rating and that actually proved to be its second best score. Inspection ratings account for several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. This particular facility was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only positive thing we can say is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they created a risk to patient safety or health. Finally, we also would like to draw your attention to the fact that this place was assessed significant government fines in recent years totaling over $100,000. This often signifies that a nursing home'spoor track record spanned more than one year.

This facility's next best category was nursing, but even there it received a grade of just D. This is still a well below average grade. In calculating a nursing home's nursing rating, we look at the quantity of hours nurses are seeing residents and the skill levels of those nurses. This nursing home offered just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This is well below average. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in calculating our nursing ratings. This nursing home performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.

The last category we rated is long-term care. It received an abysmal F in this area, which is a poor grade. Long-term care ratings in this range generally are a bad sign for the quantity and quality of care provided by nurses and aids. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. We were concerned by the fact that this facility vaccinated just 75.28735 percent of its residents for pneumonia. To our surprise, this nursing home was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than the average nursing home. This was its best feature in this category.