Alden Estates of Evanston

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Our inspection ratings are tied to many datapoints located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that receive favorable grades in this area have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This facility was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to cause an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple relatively minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

This nursing home also was awarded an A+ short-term care grade, rendering it one of the few facilities to be given several A+ category scores. In the area of short-term care, we attempt to assess indicators of a facility's rehabilitation. We look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final item we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 6.5 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Another strong feature for this facility is that it received an impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B+. The nursing category includes quite a few factors, many of which are based on levels of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving residents more often.

The last area we looked at was long-term care. This facility was awarded a very good nursing score this year, with a grade of B. While this wasn't as dominant as a few of its other category grades, this is still one of our more favorable grades for that area. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it generally means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to reside on a permanent basis. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 99.13043 percent of its residents. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.