Autumn Lake Healthcare at Chestertown

While this nursing home's overall grade was not a highlight, it actually excelled in the category of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- for that area, which is one of our best scores. Inspection ratings account for several factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. You should avoid nursing homes with too many deficiencies flagged. While this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that 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 minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.

We also awarded this facility a decent grade in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a C. In our short-term care score, we endeavor to create a fair measure for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we analyze a facility's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility offered fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The final datapoint we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 5.2 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is actually below average.

We awarded this facility a respectable grade in the area of nursing as well, with a grade of C. Our nursing rating focuses on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We look at both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the amount of time spent with residents. This place provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a somewhat uninspiring figure as it is well below the national average. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics. While this facility got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it excelled in some of these quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it did well in this statistic. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a system of moving residents even once per day.

Switching gears to the fourth category, this nursing home did not perform well here either. Due to a poor grade of F in long-term care, this is about as as uninspiring as it gets. For long-term care residents, the primary goal is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. On top of looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients. Surprisingly, this place was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.