Good Samaritan Society - Larimore

In addition to being a quality facility overall, this facility excelled in our inspections category, where it earned an A-. Not many facilities fared better in that category. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with higher grades in this area most likely avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means that CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few relatively minor dings aren't necessarily the end of the world.

This facility really excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. There are a host of subcategories included in this area. Most of these datapoints reflect levels of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

This facility also was awarded a strong short-term care grade. Indeed, we gave it an above average score of B+ in this area. Our short-term care scores are likely most important for individuals in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires more skilled nursing services. This means not only nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of patients that ultimately returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

The last category we analyzed was long-term care. This facility was awarded a very good long-term care score in our assessment, with a grade of B. This facility really doesn't have any weak links. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically provide patients with closer supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. On top of looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.