Barron Care and Rehabilitation

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it earned a very strong nursing score. In fact, this proved to be its best category. In this category, we awarded this facility an A. Our nursing grade weighs several components, many of which are tied to nursing hours. This facility provided 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 place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Adding to its impressive category grades, this facility excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. Few nursing homes performed as well in this area. Our inspection scores weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category typically have few severe deficiencies. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Turning the page to our third category, this facility received a strong long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- in that area. For long-term care residents, the nursing home's primary goal is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 87.37864 percent of its patients. This is somewhat below what we anticipated. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we had hoped, we were pleased to find place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

In the last area, we gave this facility a grade of A for our short-term care rating. This finished off a first-rate profile. Our short-term care ratings are important for patients requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally requires additional highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a vast spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final item we considered in this category is the number of residents that ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that 6 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.