Alpine Terrace

While this facility's overall grade was as bad as it gets, it actually really excelled in the category of inspections. In fact, we awarded it an A- for that category, which is one of our highest scores. Inspection grades weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. You generally want to avoid nursing homes with a bunch of severe deficiencies flagged. While this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.

Included in this facility's litany of rock-bottom grades was its F in the area of long-term care. For residents looking for a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care is an important category. One of the criteria we considered in addition to nurse's aid hours was vaccinations. Thankfully, this nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. Surprisingly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had less hospitalizations than the average nursing home. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.

Additionally, we gave this facility an F in the area of short-term care. Our short-term care grades are based in part on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a vast scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. With a score this poor for this category, we were not shocked to discover this facility was below average in multiple staffing metrics we assess. In fact, it provided far fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than most facilities. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. This was not a strength for this facility. We found that just 5.3 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, around half of their residents are able to return home so this is well below average.

The next category we assessed is nursing, where this nursing home received a rock bottom score in this area also. It received an abysmal F in this category, which is definitely very concerning. Our nursing grade includes numerous data points. The most important variable is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home offered only 0.1 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is well below average. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in calculating our nursing grades. This place fared well in the area of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.