Dycora Transitional Health - Galt

To pair with its decent overall grade, we gave this facility an A- for its inspection grade. This grade is far better than its overall score. Inspection ratings account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this area generally have few of these severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This nursing home was given its next highest category grade in the category of short-term care. We awarded this facility a grade of C in this area, which is a respectable score. In the area of short-term care, we endeavor to qualify indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess a facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The final item we considered in this category is the percentage of residents that returned home from the nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

The next area we assessed was long-term care. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a C. Our long-term care grade is often used to measure a facility's performance as a traditional nursing home, as opposed to focusing on the skilled nursing services provided by a skilled nursing facility. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Unfortunately, we weren't able to track down information about this nursing home's vaccination rates. Finally, this nursing home excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

The final category we scored was nursing. For this category, we gave this facility a grade of C. Nursing ratings are heavily correlated with levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This is a low total compared with most other nursing homes. Lastly, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got docked a bit for its nursing hours, it actually excelled in some of these quality-based metrics. With less than five percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed well in this statistic. This is typically a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a protocol of turning residents more often.