Autumn Care of Madison

This facility received a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its excellent health inspection reports in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this category. Our inspection grades account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this area generally have very few severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This means CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.

This nursing home's second best category turned out to be its short-term care score, where it was awarded a grade of B-. In the area of short-term care, we seek to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess a nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. In fact, it supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. The final statistic we considered in this area is the number of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that just 6 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.

Next, we looked at the nursing category where we awarded this nursing home a grade of C, which is a decent grade. Our nursing grade assesses the facility's nurse staffing levels. We look at both the levels of licensure of the nurses as well as the amount of time spent with residents. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics. Although this facility got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality-based metrics. With less than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, it performed well in this statistic. This can be an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as having a system of moving patients at least once a day.

The final category we scored is long-term care, which proved to be a weak link for this nursing home. We awarded this nursing home a grade of D in long-term care. If you are seeking anything other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at long-term care scores. Once we assessed the quantity of care provided by nurses, we turned to the facility's vaccination data. We were optimistic to find that this nursing home vaccinates 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Surprisingly, this facility was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Sadly, some of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.