Laclede Groves

On top of receiving a strong overall grade, this facility received an A+ inspection grade. This is based on its recent government inspections. An A+ in this category is one of the highest complements we can offer a nursing home. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection grades. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be quite insignificant. This nursing home was hit with 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be major deficiencies. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies to pose an imminent risk to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

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. Our nursing score is mostly based on a facility's nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility Missouri in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of moving patients even once per day.

Adding to its fine resume, this facility also received a dominant short-term care grade, with a grade of A. Our short-term care scores are believed to be more critical for people needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not merely nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we considered in this category is the percentage of residents that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Moving on to our next area, this facility also performed well in the long-term care category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category. This rounded out a straight A profile. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in long-term care it generally means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to reside on a permanent basis. After we finished assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 96.85535 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia is too frequently a dangerous illness for nursing home residents so we prefer when a nursing home does not take any chances. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.