U.S. News & World Report released its Best Nursing Homes list, and 24 Good Samaritan Society locations earned the highest possible rating, including Good Samaritan Society – Manson. The Manson facility is one of only two Good Samaritan homes in the state of Iowa to make the list.

The center received the highest possible rating for both long-term and short-term patient stays.

“This gives us something to keep striving for, to keep up with our high level of care that we give,” said Leah Shannon, the Manson facility’s director of nursing services.

“We’re like a big family, both staff and the residents we take care of here,” she added. “I’m very proud of the staff for maintaining the level of care that we provide here, too. It’s definitely a team effort.”

Leah Shannon, director of nursing, stands next to a memorial tree in the Good Samaritan Society’s dining room. Shannon said she is very proud of the staff for maintaining a high level of care that earned them a spot on U.S. News & World Report’s Best Nursing Homes list.

Best Nursing Homes ratings are based on U.S. News’s in-depth analysis of publicly available data, including information that is not factored into the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services ‘s star ratings. Unlike the star ratings, the U.S. News ratings recognize that patients undergoing relatively short-term rehabilitation have very different needs from those who require longer-term care.

This year’s ratings include some new requirements for a home to earn a High-Performing rating – most notably that federal CMS data published by Oct. 14, must list the home as having a COVID-19 staff-vaccination rate of at least 75 percent. Good Samaritan Society – Manson boosts a rate of 96 percent of employees fully vaccinated.

“We’ve been very careful,” Shannon said. “We are really careful about screening staff and visitors. We make sure the residents stay safe.”

As a result, of more than 15,000 U.S. skilled-nursing facilities evaluated by U.S. News, only 13% have earned even a single Best Nursing Homes badge.

Good Samaritan Society – Manson is a Five-Star, 42-bed long-term and rehabilitation nursing facility. For more information visit www.good-sam.com/manson or call 712-469-3908.