Lutheran Home earns five-star rating

May 12 marked the beginning of National Skilled Nursing Care Week, when the excellent work of skilled care providers to keep us and our loved ones healthy is officially recognized.

This year, the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd (LHGS) in New Rockford has some exciting news to share.

As of this spring, LHGS is officially a five-star skilled nursing care center.

The last time LHGS received this rating was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and before several standards and requirements were altered in the pandemic's wake.

They've been working hard to get their rating back ever since, and after an inspection by the N.D. Department of Health and Human Services, they're now one of just 20 skilled nursing care centers in the state rated "much above average" and given five stars.

"We've really been focusing on the three elements of the five-star rating which include staffing, quality measures and health inspections," said Kim Droske, LHGS administrator. "... We do a lot of quality improvement programs internally, to monitor different aspects and identify weaknesses."

According to the facility's health inspection report, LHGS is ahead of the game relative to both state and national averages, and was awarded five stars for their health quality.

That health inspection star rating is based on each nursing home's current health inspection and their two prior inspections, as well as findings from the most recent three years of complaint inspections and three years of infection control inspections.

As of their most recent inspection, LHGS had zero health citations – very impressive considering the state average for health citations 5.1, while the national average is 9.4.

Meanwhile, LHGS may have made their biggest strides when it comes to staffing.

"During COVID we had a hard time even getting contract staff," said Droske. "Now that there's availability for contract staff we're able to staff better."

She added that LHGS has also been working hard to reduce turnover – efforts that certainly appear to be paying off according to the staff report, which also gave them a five-star rating.

According to the report, the total number of nurse staff hours per resident per day at the Lutheran Home is 4 hours and 35 minutes. That's higher than the North Dakota average of 4 hours and 29 minutes, and much higher than the national average of just 3 hours and 47 minutes.

Meanwhile, at 56 minutes, the Lutheran Home's registered nurse staff hours per resident per day is also up, outperforming the national average of 39 minutes, and the North Dakota average of 55 minutes.

Staffing hours per resident per day is the total number of hours worked by each type of staff divided by the total number of residents.

When it comes to turnover percentage, the Lutheran Home is also above average.

"In the last two years the board and our internal leadership have been really working on employee morale, and on wages and benefits to make sure that we're able to retain the staff we have," said Droske. "So I think that's been a huge change over the last few years."

According to the staff report, the total nursing staff turnover at LHGS is 49.1 percent – yet again outperforming the state and national averages, which are 52.2 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

Their registered nurse turnover, meanwhile, is at just 33.3 percent, much lower than the national average of 48.7 percent, and below the state average of 37 percent.

In most categories, our local skilled nursing care facility is similarly above the national and/or state averages, and Droske said it takes the efforts of everyone to make these improvements possible.

"It takes good, dependable, high quality staff to maintain a five-star rating," she said, "because it isn't just the direct care staff, it's also housekeeping, it's laundry, it's dietary, and it's leadership.

"It isn't just one small group of people that can pull this off, it's all of us doing our parts to give the highest quality of care for the residents we take care of. If there's one weak link, it kind of falls apart ... It all needs to click."

Moving forward, Droske said there are no plans to take it easy now that they're five-star rated once again. Efforts to improve their facility will continue, particularly as certain monetary benefits could be available if they retain the five-star rating.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd and what they offer for both residential care and employment can visit their website at http://www.lhgs.org, where important information and even a virtual tour are available.