Little Falls Care Center

Little Falls Care Center is located in Little Falls, Minnesota. The city has 14,786 people. With an overall score of A-, this facility is one of the better nursing homes we assessed. We were so impressed with this facility that we ranked it in the top third of all facilities nationally. This nursing home's strong report card was highlighted by its nursing score, which you can find in the next paragraph.

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. There are many criteria within this category. Many of these criteria relate to staffing levels. This nursing home provides an impressive 4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, this facility also excelled in the quality-based metrics we assessed. For example, it fared as well as any facility the nation in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these metrics as reliable measures of the quality of nursing care provided.

Adding to this facility's impressive resume, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. Inspection scores account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher scores in this category usually have very few severe deficiencies. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

This facility is also above average in the category of short-term care, where it was given a score of B+. It performed more favorably than most facilities in this category. In determining our short-term care grades, we scrutinize a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This category is generally a useful assessment of a facility's rehabilitation services. We were pleased to find that this nursing home employs both registered nurses and physical therapists. The same can't be said for all nursing homes. Finally, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that it outperformed the majority of nursing homes in the nation with 53.3 percent of its patients returning home. This is a higher rate than most nursing homes.

The final area we assessed ended up being this facility's weakest area. However, even its weakest link would actually be a highlight for most nursing homes. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B in long-term care. When facilities receive this kind of score in this category it is typically a good sign for resident care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. On top of looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are critical to keeping patients out of the hospital. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. While it had 2.12 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, its risk adjusted score was better than the majority of nursing homes since it had some more complex patients.