Good Samaritan Society - Algona

This nursing home received a quality overall score as described above, but we especially wanted to emphasize its excellent inspections in recent years. We awarded it an A in this category. Our inspection grades are based on several items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that score well in this area tend to have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. While this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

This facility is also strong in the area of long-term care, where it was given a score of B. It performed more favorably than most facilities in this area. Facilities that receive this type of score in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are kept in good health. After looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents healthy. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The next highest grade we gave this nursing home came in the category of nursing, where we gave it a grade of B-. This wasn't quite as good as some of its other scores, but a grade in this range is not the end of the world. Nursing grades are based in large part on quantity of nursing care available. This nursing home provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This figure is far below average. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics. While this facility got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it excelled in a few of these quality metrics. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it did remarkably well in this metric. This is generally an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a protocol of turning residents more frequently.

Turning to our fourth category, this nursing home received a grade of C in short-term care, which is generally a respectable grade. Our short-term care scores are probably most important for folks requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation usually mandates additional highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Unfortunately, we weren't able to track down registered nurse or physical therapy staffing data for this nursing home. Lastly, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.7 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.