Missouri Slope Luth Care Center

In addition to a phenomenal overall grade, this facility also received A+ nursing grade. Our nursing rating assesses the facility's level of nurse staffing. We consider both the levels of training of the nurses as well as the number of hours spent with patients. This nursing home provides 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a system of moving residents even once per day.

This facility has received near flawless health inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this category. Inspection scores weigh a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this category tend to have very few severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.

Turning our third category, this facility was awarded first-rate short-term care score. In fact, we gave it a grade of A- in this category. Our short-term care scores are believed to be more important for those requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires additional highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not just nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the number of residents who who were able to eventually return home from this nursing home. We found that 4.8 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

Moving on to the last category, this facility was given a highly favorable long-term care score. We awarded it a grade of B+ in this area, rounding out one of our finer report cards. Facilities that receive this type of score in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are kept in good health. On top of considering the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.