Kyakameena Care Center

The main reason this facility received a decent overall score is its excellent government inspections in recent years. We awarded them one of our better grades in that area, with an A-. This is a notably better grade than the facility's overall grade, which was decent but not in the elite range. Arguably the most significant factor we look at in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this category typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This tells you that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. We should point out that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.

We also wanted to note that this facility received an B in nursing. We looked at the qualifications of nurses employed by the facility, as well as the quantity of hours those nurses worked with residents, in computing our grade in this area. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Additionally, we also wanted to point out that this facility was awarded impressive long-term care marks this year. We gave them one of our higher scores in that category, with a B. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in long-term care it is usually a good sign for patient care and indicates that the place is well-staffed with nurses and aids. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is far higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it 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 an impressively low number.

The last area we looked at was short-term care. We gave this nursing home a grade of D for the area of short-term care, making this the nursing home's least impressive grade. Our short-term care ratings are believed to be most important for residents requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally mandates additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means not just nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. In this facility's case, it looks like it provides fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than the average facility. Finally, we assessed the number of patients who were able to return home from this facility. This facility didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 2.6 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was well off the national average.