Emmetsburg Care Center

In addition to being a great facility overall, it also received A+ inspections in recent years. Its inspections are virtually perfect. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection grades. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some end up being relatively insignificant. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this nursing home was superb in our long-term care rating. We gave them an impressive score of A+ in this area. If you are looking for anything other than rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each facility's long-term care grades. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 92.92035 percent of its patients, which is a few points less than we anticipated. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. The nursing score assesses quite a few subcategories, most of which are associated with quantities of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The final area we scored is short-term care, where this facility was given a grade of B+. This topped off a very favorable profile. Only a select few facilities earned a B+ or better in every single category. In computing these short-term care grades, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to devise a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last statistic we looked at in this area is the percentage of patients that eventually returned home from the facility. We found that 4.6 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.