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 facility's second best category was its nursing grade, where it received a grade of B-. The nursing grade includes a variety of subcategories. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this facility got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of these quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed remarkably well in this subcategory. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a system of moving patients more frequently.

The next category we assessed is short-term care, where this facility was awarded a B- in this area. Short-term care scores are based in part on the facility's quantity of skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a broad scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other forms of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 5.3 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

The next area we scored was long-term care, which turned out to be a weak link for this nursing home. We awarded this nursing home a D in long-term care. For residents seeking a permanent place to live rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are very important. In addition to assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 99.28571 percent of its patients. To our surprise, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.