Edenbrook of Wisconsin Rapids

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. Inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this facility had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

An additional quality feature for this facility is that it was awarded a very positive short-term care score. Indeed, this turned out to be its second best category grade. In this category, we gave this facility a grade of B+. In forming these short-term care ratings, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to create a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. This place excelled in the two key staffing areas we looked at. In fact, it supplied more care from physical therapists and registered nurses than the typical facility. This is certainly an excellent sign. The final measure we assessed in this category is the number of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that it fared better than most nursing homes in this area with 52.3 percent of its patients returning home. At most facilities, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.

Another strong feature for this facility is that it received an impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B. We scrutinized the licensure of nurses working for the facility, as well as the quantity of time those nurses worked with patients, in computing our rating in this category. This particular nursing home provided 3.7 hours of nursing care per patient each day. At least one fourth of this care was provided by registered nurses, which are skilled nurses. This is a high percentage of skilled nursing care. In determining our ratings, we apply more weight to care provided by registered or licensed nurses. Finally, we also looked at certain nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these areas as reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care being provided, since better care tends to reduce these problems.

This facility's weakest area was long-term care, which is the last area we looked at. Sadly, it received an F in this category. In spite of a few impressive grades in other categories, this grade is still a bit alarming so we wanted to point it out. For patients in need of a permanent residence as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care grades are very important. After looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination records. We were pleased to learn that this facility vaccinated 99.31507 percent of its residents for pneumonia. To our surprise, this nursing home also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had just 1.37 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Sadly, a few of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.