Galena Stauss Nursing Home

This nursing home earned a strong overall score as mentioned above, but we wanted to point out its excellent long-term care rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this category. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 98.69281 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia sadly can be a life threatening health condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home does not leave this to chance. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facility received high grades in the area of nursing as well. In fact, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A-. We looked at the qualifications of nurses employed by the nursing home, as well as the number of hours those nurses were with patients, in computing our score in this area. This facility provided 0.3 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home was given its next most favorable category score in the area of short-term care. We awarded this nursing home a B- in this area, which is a reasonably acceptable score. Our short-term care scores are based in part on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a broad range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents that returned home from the facility. We found that just 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

In the last category we assessed, this facility received a good score in inspections as well. We awarded it a B- for that category. This facility didn't have any major weaknesses. These inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.