Eastern Montana Veterans Home

One of the many reasons this ended up being a great nursing home is that it received a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections turned out to be its best category. In that category, we gave this nursing home an A-. Inspection ratings are based on items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that receive favorable grades in this category tend to have few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these facilities should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its first-rate profile, this facility also performed well in our short-term care area. In fact, we gave it a score of A- for that area. With our short-term care rating, we try to create a meaningful barometer for rehabilitation. In doing so, we analyze a facility's level of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

This facility is also above average in the category of long-term care, where it was given a grade of B+. It outperformed most facilities in this area. Facilities that do well in long-term care tend to provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 99.484535 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

In the last area, this facility also was awarded an excellent nursing grade, with a grade of B+. This finished off a very strong profile. The nursing score includes many factors. The most important variable is the quantity of hours nurses spend with patients. This nursing home averages 0.5 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of moving a patient more frequently.