Avante at Melbourne

Avante at Melbourne is an average-sized nursing home in Melbourne, Florida. This turns out to be a middle of the pack facility, with an overall grade of B-. The facilities in Melbourne received quality scores across the board with a city grade of a B. We were also pleased to discover that this facility received consistently decent grades in each of the major categories. Additional information about these categories can be found below.

This facility earned a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its nearly flawless inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A- in this category. Our inspection scores weigh a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this category usually have few severe deficiencies. Although this place had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were severe based on CMS' scale. The fact that the deficiencies were relatively minor leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

In addition, we awarded this facility a B in our long-term care category. This happens to be one of our more impressive scores. Facilities that excel in this category typically provide residents with better supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. On top of assessing the impressive volume of care provided by aids and other staff at this nursing home, we also were impressed by the facility's record for vaccinations. For example, this facility provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is an impressive figure. Finally, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. Here we found that this nursing home had 5.1 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. While this admittedly wasn't as strong as most of its other scores in this area, this statistic can be skewed for some facilities due to some of the preexisting medical conditions of residents.

This nursing home's next most favorable category was short-term care. We awarded it a B- in this category. This is essentially a slightly below average score in this area. With our short-term care grade, we attempt to forge a meaningful measure for rehabilitation. In doing so, we analyze a nursing home's level of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. This proved to be more of a strength for this facility. In fact, we found that it outperformed the majority of facilities in the nation in this area with 49.6 percent of its residents returning home.

Turning to the last category, this facility received a grade of B- in nursing, which is generally a decent grade. We looked at the licensure of nurses employed by the facility, as well as the quantity of hours the nurses spent with residents, in determining our score in this area. With 4.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day, this nursing home surpassed the vast majority of facilities. Lastly, this facility fared well in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. By way of illustration, in terms of the number of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this facility performed better than the national average. This is generally an accurate indicator that a nursing home has quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented with better nursing care.