Panora Specialty Care

On top of being a strong nursing home overall, this place excelled in our inspections category, where it received an A. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection scores. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some of these are quite minor. Although this place had some deficiencies on its report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

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 primarily tied to a facility's nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility Iowa in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a system of moving patients more often.

This facility is also strong in the area of short-term care, where it was awarded a score of B. It performed more favorably than most nursing homes in this area. In our short-term care grade, we seek to create a valuable measure for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we assess a facility's level of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we looked at in this area is the number of patients who returned home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

The final area we assessed was long-term care. This nursing home was given a grade of C for this area. In the area of long-term care, we focus more on the quantity of care offered by a facility, as opposed to more healthcare-oriented services. One of the criteria we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccines. Fortunately, this facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its patients. Lastly, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.