Arizona State Veteran Home-Tucson

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ nursing grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. When calculating our nursing grades, we look at both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed very well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Adding to its impressive category scores, this facility also excelled in the category of inspections, where it earned an A. Not many nursing homes performed as well in this area. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this category generally have very few of these severe deficiencies. 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.

The third category we analyzed was long-term care. Contributing to its strong resume, this facility also performed well in this area. In fact, we gave it a grade of of A- in that area. Long-term care grades of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. One of the criteria we considered in addition to nursing hours was vaccinations. This nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccine to 98.74608 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a reliable method to minimize negative health outcomes for the senior population. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

In the last category we graded, this nursing home was awarded a very favorable grade of A- in our short-term care category. With this grade, the facility topped off a straight A profile. In our short-term care rating, we attempt to create a meaningful gauge for rehabilitation. In this process, we assess a facility's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final measure we considered in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to return home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.