Griggs County Care Center

On top of performing well overall, this nursing home also received a nearly flawless inspection report. Consequently, it earned one of our highest scores in that category with an A+. Inspection scores weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this category typically have few severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were severe based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also gave this facility a grade of A+ for its long-term care grade. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients out of the hospital. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This first-rate facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A+. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. There are many datapoints within this grade. Most of the subcategories are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.5 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 nursing home the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of moving residents more frequently.

Switching gears to the final area, this facility also performed admirably in the short-term care category. We awarded it an A- for that category. This topped off truly elite report card. In our short-term care category, we endeavor to create a valuable measure for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we assess a nursing home's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last statistic we assessed in this category is the number of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.