Aspen Hills Healthcare Center

In addition to being a strong nursing home overall, this facility especially excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an A+. Few facilities fared better in this area. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection ratings. One critical factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be quite insignificant. 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. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. There are numerous datapoints within this area. Many of the subcategories are tied to the quantity of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The next best area we gave this facility in any area came in the area of short-term care, where we awarded it a B-. Our short-term care grades are crucial for patients in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates additional highly-skilled nursing services. This means a broad scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final item we assessed in this area is the number of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 4.4 percent of this facility's residents returned home. This figure was below average.

The last category we scored was long-term care. We gave this nursing home a C in this category. In forming these long-term care scores, we look at the facility's personal care services. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Candidly, we were a bit alarmed this nursing home administered the vaccine to a relatively low 86.795494 percent of its patients. Nevertheless, this facility excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.