The Healthcare Resort of Topeka

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this facility also received an A+ long-term care grade. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in this category it is a good sign for resident care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. After looking at the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is much higher than the majority of nursing homes. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next category we looked at was inspections, where this facility also received an A+ grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. These inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This place was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered severe. This indicates that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies an immediate risk to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also gave this nursing home a grade of of A+ for its short-term care grade. In determining our short-term care grades, we size up a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This score is more often than not a fair measure of a nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 6.6 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

In the last category, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for its nursing score. This completed an elite profile. In determining our nursing grades, we weigh both staffing levels and the training levels of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics 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 place Kansas in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a resident at least once a day.