Aperion Care Burbank

Although this nursing home's overall score is not a highlight, it received a somewhat respectable grade in the area of inspections. We awarded it a grade of B- for this area, which is a decent score. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection ratings. One key factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more important than the number of deficiencies, as some of these are relatively minor. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.

We also awarded this facility a grade of B- for our nursing rating. Our nursing rating is mostly associated with the nursing home's nurse staffing. This facility averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident daily, which is not an impressive total. Finally, although this place got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in some of our quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it did very well in this subcategory.

The next best area we gave this facility in any area came in the category of long-term care, where we gave it a grade of B-. Our long-term care grade is often used to assess a facility's performance as a traditional convalescent home, as opposed to focusing on the skilled nursing services offered by a rehabilitation facility. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is more than the average nursing home. Lastly, this facility was also 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 fourth category, this facility was given a decent short-term care score of C. Our short-term care grades are vital for individuals requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates more highly-skilled nursing. This includes a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. We found that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. In fact, it provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other facilities. It is still important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. The final statistic we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents that who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that just 3.8 percent of this facility's patients returned home. This figure was below the national average.