Apple Valley Post Acute Center

In addition to receiving a solid overall score, this nursing home also received strong health inspections in recent years. We awarded them one of our better scores in this area, with a B+. Arguably the most critical factor we look at in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This tells you the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. The fact that the deficiencies were relatively minor leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

An additional strong feature for this nursing home is that it received a favorable short-term care score. In fact, this proved to be its second best category score. In that area, we gave this facility a grade of B+. In our short-term care category, we strive to craft a sound measure for rehabilitation. In this process, we analyze the facility's scope of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Unfortunately, we were not able to track down information on registered nurse or physical therapy staffing for this nursing home. The final metric we looked at in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 5.5 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B in this area. Our nursing score is based on numerous factors. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of turning patients more often.

Turning to our last category, this facility was awarded a B- for long-term care, which is generally a respectable score. For prospective residents seeking a permanent place to live rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are a key measure. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents, which is higher than the average nursing home. This place also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.