Good Samaritan Society - Lemars

Good Samaritan Society - Lemars is a senior living facility located in Le Mars, Iowa. This city has a population of 12,336 people. Sporting an overall grade of B, this facility is a fine choice. Based on our assessment, this nursing home has quite a bit going for it. This facility is stronger in some categories than others, but it did not have any poor grades in any of the major categories discussed below. More information about these categories can be found below.

In addition to being a quality facility overall, this nursing home really performed well in our long-term care category, where it received an A-. Few facilities did better in this area. When facilities receive this kind of score in this category it is a good sign for patient care and indicates that the place is well-staffed with nurses and aids. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 99.56896 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.63 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Adding to its impressive category grades, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A- for our inspections rating. Our inspection ratings are tied to several pieces of information found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that score well in this area typically have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its profile, this facility also earned a grade of B for its nursing rating. This is a well above average score in this category. Our nursing rating assesses many datapoints, however, the main consideration is the quantity of nurse hours per patient per week. This particular nursing home provided 3.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics 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 facility the state 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 by having a protocol of turning patients more often.

Switching gears to the last category, this facility was awarded an acceptable short-term care grade of C. Our short-term care scores are believed to be more critical for those in need of a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional skilled nursing. This means not only nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, this nursing home offers both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities offer both. The last statistic we considered in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 33.9 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is actually below average.