Knute Nelson Care Center is certified as a Medicare and Medicaid facility and has been approved to provide these services since 1987-02-01. Medicare covers short-term skilled nursing care (typically up to 100 days after a qualifying hospital stay). Medicaid covers long-term care for residents who meet financial eligibility requirements. Contact the facility at (320) 763-6653 or your local Medicaid office to verify current eligibility.

Knute Nelson Care Center holds an overall CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) rating of 5 out of 5 stars. This is made up of three components: Health Inspection (4★), Staffing (5★), and Quality of Resident Care (4★). Our independent composite quality score — which uses the raw underlying CMS numbers to break ties between similarly-rated facilities — is 81.2/100, placing it #3173 of 14703 facilities nationally and #65 of 338 in Minnesota. Star ratings are a useful starting point, but the composite score and individual sub-ratings give a more complete picture for families comparing facilities.

Each resident at Knute Nelson Care Center receives a reported average of 4 hours 8 minutes of total nurse staffing per day. This breaks down as: Registered Nurse (RN) coverage — 1 hour 1 minute; Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) — 51 minutes; Nurse Aide — 2 hours 16 minutes. On weekends, total nurse staffing is 3 hours 32 minutes per resident per day. The CMS Staffing Rating for this facility is 5 out of 5. The national average for total nursing hours is approximately 3.5 hrs/day. Total nursing staff turnover is 37.8%. Families are encouraged to ask about current staffing schedules during their facility visit.

The facility has received 5 fine(s) over the 5-year period, totaling $61,500. No substantiated complaints have been recorded in the available data. In the most recent CMS reporting period, the facility received 0 fine(s) totaling $0, and 0 Medicare payment denial(s). Total penalties: 0. The Total Weighted Health Survey Score is 28.0 (lower scores are better). Full inspection history and complaint details are available at medicare.gov/care-compare.

Nationally, Knute Nelson Care Center ranks 3173rd out of 14,703 facilities (composite score: 81.2/100), placing it in the top 25% nationwide. Within MN, it ranks 65th out of 338 nursing homes. In Alexandria, it ranks 1st out of 2 facilities. Among facilities sharing its ZIP code, it ranks 1st of 2. For 2026 staffing: total nurse hours rank #4,016 nationally and RN hours rank #1,971 nationally (#147 in MN). Our composite quality score of 81.2/100 weighs health inspections, quality of resident care, staffing hours, compliance record, and five-year performance trends — giving a more complete picture than CMS star ratings alone, which can place hundreds of facilities in the same 5-star bucket. To browse and compare all nursing homes in Alexandria, visit: https://nursinghomesnearme.org/minnesota/alexandria/