Good Samaritan Society - Park River

In addition to performing well overall, this facility also received nearly flawless government inspections. As a result, it earned one of our best scores in that area with an A+. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection ratings. One of those factors is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more important than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being quite minor. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Our nursing score is primarily based on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can many times be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Contributing to its high-end assessment, this nursing home also was awarded a dominant long-term care grade, with a score of A-. Long-term care grades in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 99.386505 percent of its residents, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia can be a dangerous health condition for nursing home patients so we prefer when a facility does not leave its residents vulnerable. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Turning to our last category, this facility received a highly favorable short-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B+ in that category, completing one of our better profiles. In forming these short-term care scores, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The purpose is to devise a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.