Ballard Center

Although we gave this facility a terrible overall grade, we gave it a B- for our nursing rating. Our nursing grade is largely based on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home actually fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. In fact, it performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is every bit as important as the number of hours of care provided.

We were also stunned to learn that this nursing home received a solid short-term care rating in our assessment. We awarded it a grade of B- in this category. In our short-term care category, we seek to create a sound barometer for rehabilitation services. In this process, we assess the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. In this place's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than the typical facility. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 4.7 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

Incredibly, we gave this facility a C for our long-term care score, which really isn't too bad of a score. With our long-term care score, we analyze the sheer volume of services offered by a facility, as well as some qualitative measures. After assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination statistics. Candidly, we were a bit alarmed this nursing home vaccinated 85.21739 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is significantly less than what we were hoping for. Nevertheless, this facility keeps its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Moving on our last area of inspections, this nursing home received an F in this area. Since this data is compiled by independent government inspectors, we heavily weight poor results in this area. You should pay special attention to any deficiencies on a nursing home's inspection reports when it receives this bad of an inspection rating. We would scrutinize the level of severity of the deficiencies. This particular facility was hit with one category G through L deficiency, which rank among the more serious deficiencies. These categories indicate that the deficiencies found by CMS had potential to create actual harm to patients. On top of having severe deficiencies, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.