Medicalodges Atchison

This nursing home received a quality overall score as described above, but we especially wanted to point out its nearly flawless government inspections in recent years. We awarded them an A in this category. Perhaps the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Places with better grades in this category typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. While this place had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. Nursing scores are mostly based on a facility's level of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home 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 nursing home 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 frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home is also above average in the area of long-term care, where it was awarded a grade of B+. It outpaced most facilities in this area. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. After assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 99.2 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than the majority of nursing homes. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The final category we scored was short-term care. In this category, we gave this nursing home an acceptable grade of B-. This actually proved to be this nursing home's weakest category. In the area of short-term care, we attempt to assess measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.5 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.