Fort Dodge Health and Rehabilitation

While we were not high on this facility overall, we awarded it an A- for our inspections rating. This score is far more impressive than the nursing home's overall grade. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's inspection reports. It is generally best to avoid places that have a long list of severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. A couple minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing score. In that category, we awarded this nursing home an B-. Nursing scores are based in large part on nurse staffing levels. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this facility got dinged a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in a few of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it did very well in this area. This is generally an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning patients even once per day.

This facility was awarded its next highest category grade in the area of short-term care. We awarded this nursing home a grade of C in this category, which is an acceptable grade. In our short-term care assessment, we seek to forge a meaningful measure for rehabilitation services. In this process, we assess a nursing home's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this facility provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The more important thing is determining what effect this had on the quality of care. The last measure we considered in this area is the number of patients that ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that just 4.6 percent of this facility's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.

The last category we rated is long-term care. Unfortunately, we gave it an abysmal F for this category, which is a rock bottom grade. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. After assessing the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is better than most nursing homes. To our surprise, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than many nursing homes. Sadly, a few of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.