Kohala Hospital

Kohala Hospital is a very-small hospital-based nursing home located in Kapaau, Hawaii. With an overall score of C, this is a respectable facility. Based on our analysis, this nursing home ought to meet the needs of many people. This facility didn't meet our expectations in every category we looked at, but it did not receive any terrible grades either. Additional information about its category grades is available below.

We want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received a much better grade for nursing than it received overall. In fact, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. When computing our nursing ratings, we factor in both staffing levels and the skill levels of the nurses. This nursing home provided 5 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. Roughly one quarter of those hours were provided by registered nurses, which are among the most skilled levels of nurses. These are both impressive figures, which typically correlates with higher quality care. Finally, this facility also excelled in several of the quality-based metrics we looked at. With fewer than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home in the state in this category.

This facility also performed well in the category of short-term care, with high-end score of A in this area. Our short-term care ratings are believed to be more critical for patients requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes additional skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. When we assessed this facility's nursing hours, we found it offered substantially more care from registered nurses than most nursing homes. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.

The third category we graded is long-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a grade of B+. It actually outperformed most facilities in this area. When nursing homes receive this kind of score in long-term care it is usually a good sign for resident care and indicates that the place is well-staffed with nurses and aids. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 98.71795 percent of its residents, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia tragically can be a life threatening condition for nursing home patients so we prefer when a nursing home does not leave this to chance. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Looking to our last category of inspections, we gave this nursing home a grade of just just D, which is a relatively poor grade. Our inspection grade is based on the facility's government inspection reports. Since this information is compiled by government inspectors, we place significant weight on it in our overall grades. One of the more significant factors in evaluating an inspection report is deficiencies. We recommend you pay close attention to the severity of the deficiencies. This particular facility was hit with 2 deficiencies by CMS. The only favorable thing we can say is that none of the deficiencies were in the categories that suggest that they created a risk to patient safety or health. Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that this nursing home was assessed significant government fines totaling more than $100,000. This usually means that a facility's bad performance has been an issue for multiple years.