Dunkirk Rehabilitation & Nursing Center

With an address in Dunkirk, New York, Dunkirk Rehabilitation & Nursing Center is one of just two available facilities in this area. This facility is one of the best facilities we found. A score of this caliber requires excellent marks across the board. In our view, this facility is a no brainer for just about anybody. Headlining this facility's remarkable profile is its inspection score, which is addressed in the next paragraph.

In addition to receiving a strong overall rating, this facility also received an A+ inspection rating. This grade is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. An A+ in this category is one of the best complements we can offer a facility. Inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this category generally have few severe deficiencies. While this facility had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means the government inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its high-end resume, this nursing home also excelled in our long-term care category. In fact, we awarded it a score of A for that category. Long-term care ratings in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. After looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 97.9798 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is much higher than most nursing homes. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This facility is also strong in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B+. It outperformed most nursing homes in this category. Our nursing grade features many subcategories. The most important factor is the amount of time nurses spent with patients. This facility provided 3.6 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 better than average in this area. This is often a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The fourth area we assessed was short-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a grade of B+. This rounded out a very impressive report card. Few nursing homes received a B+ or better in in each area we assessed. In our short-term care rating, we endeavor to create a sound barometer for rehabilitation services. In this process, we analyze the nursing home's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. This facility provided more registered nurse and physical therapist hours per patient than most facilities. This is what we like to find when assessing a facility in this category. The final metric we assessed in this category is the number of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that it fared better than most facilities in this area with 54.5 percent of its patients returning home. Unfortunately, at most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.