Good Samaritan Society - Atwood

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A. In calculating a nursing home's nursing rating, we consider the quantity of hours nurses are with residents as well as the skill levels of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving a patient more frequently.

This facility has received near flawless health inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating these inspection ratings. One of those factors is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some can be relatively insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

The next area we analyzed was short-term care. Adding to its elite profile, this nursing home also performed well in this area. In fact, it received a grade of of A- in the area. In our short-term care assessment, we try to forge a valuable gauge for rehabilitation. In doing so, we assess a facility's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

The last area we scored was long-term care. In this area, we gave this facility a strong grade of B. For long-term care residents, the primary objective is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. One of the factors we considered on top of nurse's aid hours is vaccinations. This nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccine to 89.07563 percent of its residents. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.