Kittson Healthcare Hallock

One of the many reasons this proved to be a great facility is that it received a very impressive long-term care rating. In that category, we awarded this facility an A. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it generally means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents healthy. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Adding to its impressive category scores, this facility also excelled in the category of inspections, where it earned an A. Inspection grades weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This nursing home received 8 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be severe. This tells you that CMS did not deem any of these deficiencies an imminent threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also received a high-end short-term care score. In fact, this turned out to be this nursing home's third best category grade. In that area, we gave this facility a grade of A-. Short-term care scores are based on the facility's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a vast scope of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Switching gears to our final category, this nursing home also performed admirably in the nursing category. In fact, we awarded it an A- in that category. This topped off a straight A profile. The nursing grade consists of several factors, many of which are tied to nursing hours. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some quality-based measures in this category. This place fared well in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. For example, in terms of the number of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, this nursing home performed better than the national average. This is generally an indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided with better nursing care.