Arbrook Plaza

The primary reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it received an elite inspection score. Its inspection grade was far superior to its overall score. In the inspections category, we gave it an A+. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category tend to have few severe deficiencies. This place was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't deem any of these deficiencies to create an immediate threat to resident health or safety. A few minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.

This nursing home was awarded its next most favorable category score in the area of short-term care. We awarded this nursing home a grade of C in this category, which is an acceptable score. In computing our short-term care grades, we size up the facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly trained professionals. This area is often a fair assessment of the nursing home's rehabilitation services. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The more important thing is determining what bearing this had on quality of care. The last item we assessed in this category is the number of patients who returned home from the nursing home. We found that just 5.4 percent of this facility's patients returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.

This facilities third best area was long-term care. We gave it a C in this area. This is basically a middle of the road grade in this area. Our long-term care scores are essential for people needing personal care. One of the statistics we considered after nurse's aid hours is vaccines. Fortunately, this nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Finally, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The final category we assessed is nursing. Sadly, it received a lowly F in this area, which is a rock bottom score. This is obviously a major disappointment. Our nursing grade focuses on the facility's nurse staffing levels. We weigh both the levels of skill of those nurses as well as the amount of time spent with patients. This facility averaged only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day. Unfortunately, this nursing home also had terrible scores in some of the quality-based metrics to go along with its weak nursing hour totals. We looked at the percent of residents suffering pressure ulcers and we were disappointed. This place was at roughly 150 percent of the national average in this statistic. This is a bad sign when you consider that many pressure ulcers are preventable with better nursing care. This metric helped pull down this nursing home's nursing rating significantly.