Hendricks Community Hospital

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility received an excellent nursing grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in that category. There are a number of subcategories included in this area. Many of the datapoints are tied to the quantity of nurse staffing. 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 facility 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a system of turning patients even once per day.

Among its many impressive grades, this facility was awarded first-rate long-term care grade. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A in that category. Nursing homes that do well in this category tend to provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. After considering the quantity of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia is often a deadly illness for nursing home residents so we strongly prefer when a facility does not take any chances. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

We also want to note the fact that this facility received a high-end score of A in our short-term care category. In determining our short-term care scores, we scrutinize a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other licensed professionals. This rating is often a solid measure of a nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this category is the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Finally, this nursing home has received near flawless inspections in recent years. We gave them an A in this category. This is one of the few facilities in the country to receive an A- or better in every single category. Inspection scores account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better grades in this category tend to have few of these severe deficiencies. This place was hit with 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to pose an imminent risk to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.