Wellbrooke of Kokomo

On top of earning a strong overall grade, this facility fared well in our short-term care category. We awarded it an A for that category. Short-term care grades are crucial for patients in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a broad scope of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final datapoint we assessed in this area is the number of residents who ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that 5.9 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. Our nursing score is largely associated with the facility's level of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Turning to another of this facility's strengths, it also received a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections proved to be one of its best category grades. In that area, we awarded this nursing home an impressive grade of B+. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area generally have very few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.

Moving on to the last area, this nursing home did not perform well. Due to a rock bottom grade of F in that area, this is clearly this facility's worst category grade. For prospective residents seeking a permanent place to live rather than skilled nursing, long-term care is a very important category. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 98.82353 percent of its residents, which is higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility had less hospitalizations than the average nursing home. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.