Alaris Health at Hamilton Park

On top of performing well overall, this nursing home also earned a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it received one of our best grades in that area with an A+. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing these inspection scores. One critical factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being quite minor. While this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G through L. This tells you CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

In addition, this facility was given elite marks in the area of short-term care. Consequently, it received one of our best scores in that category with a grade of A+. Short-term care grades are based in part on a nursing home's quantity of skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a wide scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, not to mention other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we assessed in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 6.2 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

We also would like to alert you to the fact that this nursing home was awarded a strong grade of A- in our long-term care category. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care typically provide patients with closer supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia can be a dangerous health condition for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a facility does not take any chances. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Switching gears to our next category, this nursing home was given a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it a B+ in that area, topping off one of our more favorable profiles. Nursing scores are based in large part on levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 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 facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.