Autumn Ridge at North Oaks

We also found that this facility excelled in our long-term care rating. We gave them an A+ in this area. Nursing homes that receive this kind of grade in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are kept in good health. One of the datapoints we considered after nursing hours was vaccines. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its patients. This is a reliable method to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations for the aged 65 and up population. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing rating. This proved to be its second best category grade. In that category, we gave this nursing home an A+. The nursing grade weighs several datapoints, but the paramount consideration is the level of nurse hours spent with patients. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed very well in the area of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Turning the page to our next category, this facility was given a top-shelf short-term care grade. In fact, we gave it a score of A in that area. In calculating our short-term care grades, we assess a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other types of therapists. This score is generally a fair assessment of a facility's rehabilitation. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the number of residents that returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Another impressive feature for this place is its inspection grade. In that area, we gave this nursing home an A-, finishing off its straight A performance. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection scores. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are quite minor. 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.