Ecumen North Branch

Located in North Branch, Minnesota, Ecumen North Branch is the only option we identified in this area. We gave this facility an A+ overall grade, ranking it in the top ten percent of all facilities in the nation. We flat out can not say enough great things about this place. Headlining this place's stellar profile is its short-term care rating, which you can find in the next paragraph.

In addition to being a strong nursing home overall, this nursing home also excelled in our short-term care rating, where it received an A+. With our short-term care rating, we seek to forge a fair measure for rehabilitation services. In this process, we assess the nursing home's scope of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. This facility excelled at the highest level in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It offered about 50% more care from physical therapists and registered nurses than the average nursing home. This is an excellent sign. The last item we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it performed as well as just about any facility in Minnesota in this area with 60 percent of its patients returning home. Unfortunately, at most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-term residents are able to return home.

In addition, this facility received high marks in the area of nursing. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. Nursing scores are primarily tied to the nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provided 4.6 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This was one of the higher figures we found. Furthermore, we found that a significant percentage of this care was provided by registered nurses, which are highly skilled nurses. These are both really impressive figures. On top of providing high levels of care, this facility was also above average in several of the major quality measures we looked at in this category. It performed well in the area of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

Turning our third area, we gave this facility a score of A for its long-term care grade. This is a first-rate rating. Nursing homes that receive this type of score in long-term care tend to provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are kept in good health. After considering the significant amount of nursing hours provided by this facility, we next considered the facility's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 98.88889 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. This combination proved to be successful as this nursing home keeps its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Finishing off this nursing home's impressive resume, we awarded this nursing home an A- for our inspections rating. With this grade, the nursing home completes its straight A report card. Inspection scores account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this area generally have few of these severe deficiencies. This place was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe. This means that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies to pose an immediate risk to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.