Essentia Health Oak Crossing

In addition to receiving a strong overall rating, this facility received an A+ inspection score. This grade is based on its recent inspection reports. An A+ in this area is one of the best complements we can offer a facility. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing our inspection scores. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some can be relatively insignificant. 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.

This nursing home also received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, this turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A. Nursing grades are largely associated with a nursing home's nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can many times be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home also received a impressive short-term care grade. Indeed, this is this facility's third best category grade. In that category, we gave this facility a grade of A. In determining these short-term care grades, we look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to formulate a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this area is the percentage of patients that who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

In the final category we scored, this nursing home was given a very favorable grade of A in our long-term care category. With this score, the facility topped off a straight A report card. When facilities receive this type of score in this category it is a good sign for patient care and suggests that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses and aids. On top of considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is much higher than the average nursing home. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.