The Timbers of Cass County

Although we did not have many favorable things to say about this facility's overall score, it did receive a respectable nursing grade of B-. There are many datapoints within this category. Most of these datapoints are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home actually performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is typically a reliable indicator that a nursing home has sufficient quality controls in place.

The second most favorable area we awarded this facility in any area came in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a B-. Our short-term care scores are presumably most meaningful for people in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally mandates more highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes not just nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The key is determining what bearing this had on quality of care. The final measure we considered in this category is the percentage of patients that eventually returned home from the nursing home. We found that just 5.1 percent of this facility's patients returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.

The third highest category we gave this facility in any category came in the category of long-term care, where we gave it a C. Our long-term care scores are more critical for folks needing more traditional services related to activities of daily living. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to just 83.83234 percent of its residents, which is well below average. Nevertheless, this facility keeps its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Looking to our final category of inspections, we gave this facility a grade of just just D, which is a relatively poor grade. Our inspection score is based on the facility's inspections. Since this data is collected by government inspectors, we place significant weight on it in our overall grades. Inspection grades weigh many items on the facility's recent inspection reports. If you find too many deficiencies on the inspection reports, this is typically the worst sign. Severe deficiencies indicate a risk to the well being of residents. This particular facility was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we found is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they created a threat to resident health or safety. Finally, CMS flagged this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. This is not what you want to see. We advise you to direct your search elsewhere.