Shepherd of the Valley Poland

To go along with a favorable overall grade, we awarded this nursing home an A+ for inspections. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing these inspection ratings. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some of these can be relatively insignificant. Fortunately, although this place had a few 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 that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to alert you to the fact that this facility performed well in our long-term care category. We awarded them a dominant score of A+ in this area. Facilities that receive this kind of grade in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are kept in good health. After assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. When computing our nursing ratings, we weigh both staffing levels and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures 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 facility the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of turning residents more often.

Switching gears to our fourth area, this nursing home was awarded a highly favorable short-term care score. In fact, we gave it a grade of A- in this category, resulting in this facility receiving straight A's. Our short-term care grades are likely more critical for those in need of rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation usually mandates more highly-skilled nursing. This means not only nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final metric we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We found that 5.8 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.