Americana Health & Rehab Center

One of the reasons this proved to be a great nursing home is that it received a very impressive long-term care rating. In fact, this was its best grade. In this area, we awarded this facility an A. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary goal is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 72.07792 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is somewhat below what we expected but still a reasonably acceptable figure. While its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we had hoped, at least this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Adding to its impressive category scores, this facility also excelled in the category of inspections, where it earned an A-. Inspection scores account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category typically have few severe deficiencies. While this facility had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also was given a very strong short-term care grade. This actually ended up being this facility's third strongest category grade. In that category, this facility received a score of A-. Short-term care grades are critical for prospective residents needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually requires higher levels of skilled nursing. This includes a vast scope of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, according to 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 residents who were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 6.1 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

In our last category, we gave this facility a grade of A- for its nursing rating. This completed a very strong report card. Our nursing rating is based on the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We look at both the levels of training of the nurses and the number of hours spent with patients. This nursing home provides 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 nursing home 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 often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.