Galena Nursing & Rehab Center

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it earned an A+ inspection grade. This is as good as it gets in this category. Inspection ratings account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this area typically have very few of these severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the inspectors didn't deem 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.

This facility truly excelled in the category of long-term care, where it received a grade of A. Few facilities performed more favorably in this area. Facilities that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are well cared for. One of the datapoints we considered in addition to nursing hours was vaccinations. This nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccination is a great way to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations for the elderly population. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to the third area, this nursing home also earned a score of B for its short-term care rating. This is an above average grade in this category. In the area of short-term care, we try to qualify measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We look at the facility's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this category is the number of residents that were able to return home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

The next area we scored is nursing. We awarded this nursing home a decent score in that area, with a C. While this isn't on par with a few of this facility's other scores, it is nevertheless nothing to be ashamed of. When computing a facility's nursing score, we weigh the quantity of hours nurses are caring for patients and the skill levels of those nurses. This nursing home averages just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures. While this nursing home got docked a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in a few of these quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this statistic. This is typically a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving residents more frequently.