Sunterra Springs Dardenne Prairie

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ in our inspections category. This is just about as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection grades are based on many pieces of information found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that excel in this category tend to have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. We weren't able to locate deficiency data for this facility. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To complement its elite accomplishments in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A- for its long-term care grade. For long-term care residents, the nursing home's primary objective is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. Clearly we were satisfied with what we found here in this category.

This nursing home also was strong in the area of short-term care, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes received a better grade in this area. In the area of short-term care, we endeavor to assess measures of a facility's rehabilitation. We analyze a facility's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents that returned home from the nursing home. We found that 5.6 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

In the final area, this nursing home also received an impressive nursing rating, with a B+. This rounded out an elite profile. When calculating a nursing home's nursing score, we assess the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the skill levels of the nurses. 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 facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.