Apache Junction Hlth Center

In addition to faring well overall, this nursing home received a nearly flawless inspection report. Consequently, it received one of our highest scores in that category with an A+. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with better scores in this area most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. 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.

This nursing home also was awarded a impressive short-term care score. This actually is its second strongest category score. In that category, we gave this facility a grade of A. Short-term care grades are generally employed to judge a facility's performance with rehabilitation. In order to have good rehabilitation services, nursing homes generally need to feature higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes registered nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and other types of therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final measure we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 6.6 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

Turning the page to our third area, this facility was awarded a strong long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a score of A in this area. Facilities that receive this kind of score in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are well cared for. After considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 99.4898 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Switching gears to the last category, this nursing home was awarded a highly favorable nursing score. We awarded it a B+ in that category, rounding out one of our more impressive profiles. Our nursing grade is largely tied to the facility's level of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.