MercyOne Dubuque

To pair with its favorable overall grade, we gave this place an A+ for our inspection category. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with higher scores in this area most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Fortunately, although this place had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its impressive assessments in other areas, we awarded this facility a grade of A- for our long-term care rating. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. Overall this looks like a solid option for long-term care.

In addition, this facility also received favorable short-term care grades in our assessment. Indeed, we gave them one of our stronger grades in that area, with a score of B+. In our short-term care rating, we attempt to forge a meaningful gauge for rehabilitation services. In this process, we assess a facility's levels of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that this nursing home submitted information about its staffing of registered nurses or physical therapists. The last metric we assessed in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Switching gears to our final category, this facility was awarded a high-end nursing rating. In fact, we gave it a grade of B+ in that area, rounding out one of our more favorable report cards. The nursing score includes a variety of factors. The most important one is the amount of time nurses spend with residents. This nursing home provides 0 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.