Prairie Ridge Care Center

In addition to performing well overall, this facility also received nearly flawless government inspections. As a result, it earned one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. Inspection ratings weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area usually have few severe deficiencies. While this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors did not consider 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.

This facility also received an A+ long-term care grade, making it one of the few facilities to receive multiple A+ category grades. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in long-term care it generally means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 98.80239 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents out of the hospital. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This nursing home also excelled in the area of short-term care, where we gave it a score of A-. Few facilities received a better grade in this category. In our short-term care assessment, we strive to create a valuable gauge for rehabilitation services. In this process, we assess the facility's scope of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents who eventually returned home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Turning to the fourth area, this nursing home was awarded a strong nursing rating. We awarded it an A- in that area, giving this facility straight A's. In computing a nursing home's nursing rating, we look at the quantity of hours nurses commit to patients as well as the level of licensure of the nurses. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also factored a few quality-based metrics into our nursing grades. This place was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.