Whitewater Health Services

Whitewater Health Services is a small facility located in Saint Charles, Minnesota. We awarded this facility an overall grade of B-. A grade in this range requires some respectable marks. This facility seems to have some things working in its favor. We were also pleased to find that this nursing home was consistent in each of the major categories. Additional information about these categories can be found below.

This nursing home's overall score was propped up by the fact that it has received favorable government inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. This is a much better grade than the facility's overall grade. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in calculating our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities with better scores in this category most likely avoided the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This nursing home received 8 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This tells you that CMS did not deem any of these deficiencies to be an imminent threat to patient health or safety. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe made us feel better about this inspection report.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing score. Nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this nursing home an B+. Our nursing rating focuses on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We consider both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the number of hours spent with patients. This facility provided 3.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as employing a system of turning a patient at least once a day.

We also gave this facility a favorable score in short-term care. This nursing home earned a B in this category, which is one of our more impressive grades. In computing our short-term care grades, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our objective is to create a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. When we assessed this facility's nursing hours, we found it offered more care from registered nurses than most nursing homes. The last datapoint we looked at in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. It was respectable in this area with 46.2 percent of its residents returning home.

The next category we graded was long-term care. We awarded it a grade of C in that category. This is a fair grade in this area. In the area of long-term care, we look at the quantity of services provided by a facility, rather than more sophisticated services. After looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 94.117645 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is higher than the majority of nursing homes. This facility also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 1.24 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a significantly better hospitalization rate than the average nursing home.