Good Samaritan Society-Scandia Village

One of the reasons this place received a great overall grade is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. Nursing actually ended up being its best category. In that category, we gave this facility an A. Our nursing rating focuses on the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We look at both the levels of licensure of those nurses and the quantity of hours spent with residents. This nursing home averages 0.4 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 facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a policy of moving a resident more frequently.

Among this nursing home's other achievements is its top-shelf short-term care score. We awarded them one of our more impressive scores in that category, with a grade of A-. In the category of short-term care, we try to assess measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess a nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the number of patients that were able to return home from this facility. We found that 5.3 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.

This nursing home earned a solid inspection report this year as well, with few dings from the applicable government inspectors. As a result, it earned one of our better grades in that category with a score of B-. Our inspection scores weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. This facility was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent risk to resident safety or health. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in this industry.

The last area we looked at is long-term care, proved to be this nursing home's least impressive category. We awarded this nursing home a D in this category. This is one of just a couple of weak links on an otherwise strong report card. For long-term care residents, the nursing home's primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 97.36842 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is more than the majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility had less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.