Hale Ho'ola Hamakua

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. When calculating a facility's nursing grade, we consider the quantity of hours nurses are seeing residents and the level of licensure of the nurses. This nursing home provided 4.8 hours of nursing care per patient per day, which is among the more impressive totals in the country. A significant portion of those hours were provided by registered nurses, which are one of the most highly skilled levels of nurses. We were very impressed by both of these figures. In addition to providing high levels of care, this facility also excelled in the quality-based metrics we assessed. It performed as well as any facility in the nation when it comes to avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.

We also wanted to point out the fact that this nursing home was superb in our long-term care category. We gave them an exemplary score of A+ in this category. Facilities that receive this kind of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are well cared for. On top of offering very favorable levels of nursing care, this nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccine to 99.082565 percent of its patients. This percentage is also significantly higher than the average nursing home. This combination proved to be effective as this place was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Another impressive feature of this facility is its inspection grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. Arguably the most important factor we consider in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area typically dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This particular nursing home received 5 deficiencies on its inspection report. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

The final area we graded is short-term care, where this facility received a B+. This wrapped up a first-rate profile. Only a select few facilities received a B+ or higher in all four categories. With our short-term care grade, we attempt to create a valuable measure for rehabilitation. In this process, we look at the facility's level of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. One of this nursing home's strength is that it offers more hours of care from registered nurses to its residents. The final item we assessed in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.