Excelsior Springs Hospital

To pair with its strong overall score, we awarded this facility an A for our long-term care score. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 99.462364 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia is too frequently a dangerous illness for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a nursing home does not leave this to chance. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to another one of this nursing home's strengths, it also received a very impressive inspection score. In fact, inspections turned out to be one of its best category grades. In that area, we gave this nursing home a grade of A. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some of these end up being quite minor. This facility received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be severe. This tells you that CMS did not consider any of these deficiencies 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.

This facility was given its next highest category score in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a C in this category, which is a decent grade. Our short-term care scores are believed to be more meaningful for those needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes more highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes not just nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Unfortunately, we weren't able to track down information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Lastly, we considered the number of patients that were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually quite a bit below the national average.

The next area we graded was nursing. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a grade of C. In computing our nursing ratings, we assess both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of those nurses. This facility provides only 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a somewhat alarming figure which is well below average. Finally, we also factored some quality-based metrics into our nursing ratings. This facility was relatively weak in two of the major areas we look at, with below average scores for minimizing its patients' pressure ulcers and major falls. These areas are typically indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.