Fergus Falls

In addition to performing well overall, this facility also earned nearly flawless government inspections. Therefore, it earned one of our best grades in that area with an A+. Perhaps the most critical factor we look at in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Facilities with better scores in this area typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. Although this facility had some deficiencies on its inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' scale. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we gave this nursing home an A+. We looked at the skill-level of nurses at the nursing home, in addition to the number of hours those nurses worked with patients, in determining our score in this category. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 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 generally be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Adding to its first-rate resume, this facility also received an excellent short-term care grade, with a grade of A. In computing our short-term care scores, we assess a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly trained professionals. This grade is considered to be a meaningful measure of the nursing home's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

In the last area, we awarded this facility a grade of A+ for our long-term care score. This finished off a very strong report card. Facilities that receive this type of score in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are kept in good health. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 99.386505 percent of its patients, which is significantly higher than the average nursing home. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.