Good Samaritan Society - George

In addition to being a top notch facility overall, it also excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Our inspection ratings are tied to many pieces of information found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This facility was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered to be severe. This tells you that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies to create an immediate threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also would like to emphasize the fact that this facility received a dominant grade of A- in our short-term care category. Our short-term care scores are considered to be most critical for patients needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes not only nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this category is the number of residents who were able to return home from the nursing home. 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 third category we assessed was long-term care. Adding to its first-rate resume, this nursing home also excelled in this category. In fact, it received a grade of of A- for the category. Facilities that do well in long-term care typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. Once we looked at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

In the last category we scored, this facility received an impressive grade grade of B+ in our nursing category. With this grade, the nursing home topped off a very strong report card. Nursing grades are based in large part on levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as having a system of moving residents more often.