Avon Oaks Nursing Home

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Places with better grades in this area most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. This is very impressive. You can't do much better than a deficiency-free inspection report.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing grade. This turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of A. When computing a facility's nursing grade, we assess the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of training of the nurses. This facility provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

This nursing home also was awarded a top-shelf short-term care score. Indeed, this ended up being this facility's third best category grade. In that category, this facility received a score of A-. Our short-term care ratings are arguably more meaningful for residents requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally mandates more highly-skilled nursing. This includes not only nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to return home from the facility. We found that 5.4 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

The last category we scored is long-term care, in which this nursing home received a B. Even though this turned out to be its lowest category rating, this is nevertheless an above average score. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in long-term care it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients out of the hospital. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.