Alhambra Care Center

On top of receiving a strong overall score, this facility also received top notch inspections in recent years. We gave them one of our best scores in that category, with an A. Inspection scores weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this area generally have few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe made us feel better about this inspection report.

This facility really excelled in the area of short-term care, where we gave it a grade of A-. Only a select group of facilities performed better in this area. Our short-term care ratings are thought to be most meaningful for people needing rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not just nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. Our nursing rating consists of a handful of datapoints, many of which are associated with levels of nurse staffing. 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 place 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 generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This facility's weakest area was long-term care, which is the last area we assessed. Unfortunately, we gave it a lowly F in this category. Even with multiple excellent grades in other areas, this grade is nevertheless a bit disappointing so we felt obligated to point it out. For prospective residents seeking a permanent residence as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is more than most nursing homes. To our surprise, this nursing home also keeps its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.