Wakonda Heritage Manor

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Facilities with better grades in this category most likely avoided the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This top notch facility also performed remarkably in the area of long-term care, where we awarded it a score of A+. Very few nursing homes fared better in this area. Facilities that receive this type of grade in long-term care tend to provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure residents are kept in good health. After considering the amount of nursing care, we turned to the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is too frequently a deadly ailment for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home does not leave this to chance. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Moving on our third area, we gave this facility a grade of A for our short-term care rating. This is a very strong rating. Our short-term care grades are arguably more meaningful for residents needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation usually mandates more skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not just nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Moving on to the last category, this facility also performed well in the nursing category. In fact, we gave it an A in that category. This finalized a straight A report card. When determining a nursing home's nursing grade, we consider the amount of time nurses are with residents and the level of licensure of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures 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 nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a protocol of turning residents more frequently.