Good Samaritan Society - Inver Grove Heights

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Inspection grades account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To complement its high-end performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a score of A for its short-term care score. Our short-term care scores are based in part on a facility's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This means a broad scope of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.8 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. There are a variety of criteria within this grade. Many of the criteria reflect levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this place 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of turning a patient more often.

In the last category we rated, this facility was given a very strong grade of A- in our long-term care category. With this score, the facility wrapped up a straight A report card. For patients in need of a permanent residence rather than skilled nursing, long-term care is an important category. Once we assessed the volume of nursing care, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 89.01099 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we hoped for, at least this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.