Avalon Place

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. These inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among its many elite grades, this facility received an excellent long-term care grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in this area. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in long-term care it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the amount of nursing care, we then looked at the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 98.941795 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is often a dangerous illness for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. In computing a facility's nursing score, we weigh the number of hours nurses spend with patients and the level of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Turning to our next category, this facility was given a high-end short-term care score. In fact, we gave it a grade of A- in this category, rounding out a straight A profile. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to assess measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.