Altercare Coshocton

This facility received a quality overall grade as described above, but we especially would like to emphasize its nearly flawless inspections in recent years. We awarded it an A in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection ratings. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being quite minor. This nursing home was hit with 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to be an imminent risk to patient safety or health. A couple relatively minor dings aren't necessarily the end of the world.

This facility was awarded a favorable long-term care score as well. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that category with a score of B+. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccines. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a reliable method to avoid unnecessary deaths for the nursing home population. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next area we analyzed is short-term care. This nursing home received a favorable short-term care score, with a grade of B+ in the category. With our short-term care category, we endeavor to forge a valuable gauge for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we analyze the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

Turning to our last category, this nursing home was awarded a respectable nursing score. Even though this isn't as strong as many of its other category grades, this is truly not a poor grade. The nursing score consists of several data points, but the main consideration is the quantity of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours per resident, this facility performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is generally an indicator that a nursing home has sufficient quality controls in place. Many falls can be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses to assist its patients.