Avalon Health and Rehabilitation

In addition to receiving a great overall rating, this facility fared even better in our inspections category which is associated with the nursing home's recent inspections. In fact, we awarded it an A+ for that category, which is one of our highest scores. Our inspection grades weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area usually have few severe deficiencies. 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 facility received a favorable short-term care score as well. We awarded it one of our better scores in that area with a grade of B+. Our short-term care scores are meaningful for individuals needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes a wide range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this category is the number of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that 6.2 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

The next category we looked at was long-term care, where this facility's grade wasn't quite as strong as its other scores. In that area, we gave this nursing home a grade of D, which is well below average. Nursing homes that don't fare well in long-term care often don't provide as much nursing care and also may be struggling in a few of the areas of routine personal care we looked at. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 93.84615 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which happens to be a bit lower than we were hoping for but still a respectable figure. Surprisingly, this place was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. This is its best feature in this category.

The next area we graded was nursing, ended up being this facility's weakest area. We awarded this nursing home a D in that category. This really is one of the few dings on a strong profile. The nursing grade is based on several factors, many of which are associated with quantities of nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Unfortunately, this facility also didn't perform as well as we hoped in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed for this category.