Essentia Health Northern Pines Medical Center

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home received an A+ in the area of long-term care. Long-term care grades of this caliber generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are critical to keeping patients healthy. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Among its many impressive grades, this facility received an excellent nursing grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in that category. Nursing ratings are primarily based on the facility's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving a patient more often.

Tallying yet another strong category grade, this facility also excelled in the area of inspections, where it received an A-. Few nursing homes fared better in this category. Our inspection scores account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this category typically have few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

The fourth area we graded was short-term care, where this facility was given a grade of A-. This wrapped up an elite report card. Very few nursing homes earned an A- or better in all four categories. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for patients requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional highly-skilled nursing services. This means a vast spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents that ultimately returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.