Abby Gardens Healthcare Center

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this nursing home performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A. These inspection ratings take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Among its many impressive scores, this nursing home received an excellent nursing rating. In fact, we gave it a grade of B+ in that area. In computing a facility's nursing rating, we assess the quantity of hours nurses commit to residents and the level of licensure of the nurses. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

In addition, this nursing home also received favorable short-term care grades this year. In fact, we gave them one of our stronger grades in that area, with a grade of B. In crafting these short-term care grades, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The goal is to formulate a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

The final category we assessed was long-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a grade of B. This facility didn't turn out to have any real weak links. Facilities that receive this kind of grade in long-term care tend to provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure patients are kept in good health. After looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. We were not able to locate this place's vaccination data. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.