Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare

Nursing Home

Updated Jun 1, 2022 by Nick Lata

Historical Rating

See Rating Overview

Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare's website

1201 17th Street Ne,
Austin MN 55912

(507) 203-9241

91.33% estimated occupancy ¹

Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare is a small non-profit nursing home in Austin, Minnesota. With an overall rating of B+, this nursing home should work for most prospective residents. We were pleased to learn that this matched the average grade of nursing homes in Austin, which is one of the better cities in Minnesota to find a nursing home. This nursing home's impressive report card was highlighted by its nursing score, which you can find in the next section.

Quick Details

Accepts Medicare ¹
Accepts Medicaid ¹
No CCRC
Has Resident Council
No Family Council
Non profit - Corporation
Offers Post-Acute Care
Offers Inpatient Rehab
Offers Outpatient Rehab

Specialized Services

Personal Care
Home Making
Speech Therapy
Stroke Recovery
IV Antibiotic Therapy
Wound Care
Occupational Therapy
Cardiac Therapy
Physical Therapy
Respiratory Therapy
Nutritional Counseling
Pain Management
Orthopedic Rehabilitation
Lymphedema Care
Aquatic Therapy

Registered Staff Hours

Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2021)

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Nurse Quality

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ nursing grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. Our nursing rating is primarily tied to the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Short-term Care Quality

We also gave this nursing home a grade of A for our short-term care score. Our short-term care ratings are believed to be most important for folks needing rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes not just nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.5 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

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Facility Inspections

Another strong feature for this facility is that it excelled in inspections, with a grade of B in that category. It outperformed most nursing homes in this area. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection scores. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are relatively minor. While this nursing home had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' scale. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.

Long-term Care Quality

The next area we analyzed was long-term care, which is this nursing home's weakest category. We gave this nursing home a grade of D in that category. However, you shouldn't judge this nursing home based solely on a single weak category, since it received several excellent grades in other categories. For residents in need of a permanent place to live as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are a key measure. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Fortunately, this nursing home vaccinated 95.08197 percent of its patients, which is a very solid datapoint. To our surprise, this nursing home was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.

Rating Over Time

Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.

Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare Quality Metrics

Minimizes Pressure Ulcers

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 6.84% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers

This figure is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients who suffered from pressure ulcers . We use this statistic in calculating both nursing and long-term care grades.

Minimizes Serious Falls

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 4.32% of Patients had Serious Falls

This statistic is an indication of the percentage of long-term stay patients which have experienced falls which caused serious injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but high rates of falls resulting in injuries could be an indicator of poor nursing care.

Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 2.81% of Patients had UTIs

This indicates the percent of residents who have had a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered to be a barometer of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are often associated with a nursing home with worse hygiene protocols. Nevertheless, this statistic can also be skewed for certain nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for urinary tract infections.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 16.37% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication

This datapoint indicates the percent of long-term patients that are administered antipsychotic drugs. High levels of antipsychotic drug use may indicate that a facility is using these drugs to control patient behavior in situations where such medications are not medically required. Nevertheless, some nursing homes may need to rely on these medications due to an increased number of patients suffering from dementia.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 12.17% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication

This tells you the percent of residents who were given antianxiety drugs. These medications are typically prescribed to patients experiencing anxiety and depression.

Managing Depression Among Residents

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 4.73% of Patients

This tells you the percentage of patients showing depressive symptoms. High levels of depression may be a sign a less hospitable environment.

Appropriate Vaccine Usage

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 93.57% of Patients

This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term patients that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines.

Residents Maintain Autonomy

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 13.28% Percentage of Patients

This tells you the percentage of residents who needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with ADL's may be a sign of decline of a resident's health.

Ability to Keep Residents Mobile

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 20.05% Percentage of Residents

Measures the percent of long-term residents who were able to retain mobility.

Hospitalizations

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 1.26 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days

This tells you the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care. There is generally a correlation between having fewer hospitalizations and the quality of nursing home care.

Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 20.05 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized

This metric measures the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term resident care. Avoiding the hospital during rehabilitation is important to restoring the physical abilities of patients.

Short-term Care: ER Visits

In Good Samaritan Society - Comforcare, 12.78 Percentage of Patients

This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. There is typically a correlation between fewer emergency room visits and the overall quality of nursing home care.