Good Samaritan Society - Winthrop

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A. Our inspection grades weigh a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this category usually have few of these severe deficiencies. This place was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This tells you that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies to be an immediate risk to resident health or safety. The fact that the deficiencies were relatively minor made us feel better about this inspection report.

We also gave this facility a grade of A- for our short-term care grade. Short-term care ratings are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a wide scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Adding to this nursing home's list of strengths, it also received an excellent nursing grade. We awarded them an impressive grade of A- in this category. The nursing score consists of quite a few components, many of which are based on quantities of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at 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 place the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of turning residents more frequently.

The final category we graded was long-term care. This nursing home received a better than average long-term care score this year, with a grade of C. Although this isn't nearly as good as many of its other scores, this is still an acceptable grade for this category. In the category of long-term care, we assess the amount of services provided by a facility, rather than more medically-intensive services. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this facility gave the vaccine to 98.55072 percent of its patients, which is a very solid percentage. Finally, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.