Signature Healthcare of Galion

The primary reason this facility received a decent overall score is its impeccable inspections in recent years. We gave them one of our higher scores in that area, with an A. This is a much better score than the facility's overall score, which was decent but certainly not elite. Our inspection grades are based on items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that score well in this area tend to have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these facilities generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This place was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This means that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies to create an immediate risk to patient health or safety. We should point out that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in the industry.

Building on this facility's list of strengths, it also earned an excellent nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of B- in this category. Nursing grades are primarily based on the facility's level of nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a relatively low total compared to most nursing homes. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures. While this nursing home got docked a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it excelled in some of these quality-based measures. With fewer than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this statistic. This can be an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving patients at least once a day.

This facilities third most favorable area was long-term care. We gave it a B- in this area. This is essentially a slightly below average grade in this category. For patients in need of a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are a key measure. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this nursing home gave the vaccine to 98.92473 percent of its patients, which is a very solid figure. This place was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Switching gears to our last category, this facility received a C for short-term care, which we consider to be a decent score. Short-term care scores are based on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a vast scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, in addition to other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.4 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.