Alpine Nursing Home

With an overall grade this high, it should come as no surprise that this facility excelled in inspections, where it earned an A. Inspection ratings account for a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category tend to have very few severe deficiencies. 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To add to its strong accomplishments in other areas, we awarded this facility a score of A for its long-term care score. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in this category it generally means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours is vaccinations. This nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccination to 95.3917 percent of its patients. This is a great way to avoid unnecessary deaths for the elderly population. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This nursing home also received a very impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. The nursing grade considers a host of factors. The most heavily weighted variable is the number of hours nurses spent with patients. This facility 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Switching gears to the fourth category, this nursing home also performed well in the short-term care category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B+ for that category. This rounded out a first-rate profile. Our short-term care grades are thought to be most critical for patients needing rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires more skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 5.1 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.