Bella Vita Health and Rehabilitation Center

In addition to receiving a strong overall grade, this nursing home also received first-rate inspections in recent years. We gave it one of our higher grades in this category, with an A. Our inspection scores weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this area generally have very few of these severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Another one of this facility's impressive category scores came in the area of long-term care. We gave them one of our more favorable scores in that area, with a score of B. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care tend to provide patients with better supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 97.2973 percent of its residents. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents healthy. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Turning to an additional strength for this facility, we awarded them one of our more positive grades in our short-term care category as well, with a B. In determining our short-term care ratings, we analyze the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other types of therapists. This category is frequently a solid assessment of the facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. It does not look like this facility provided data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients that eventually returned home from this nursing home. We found that 6.3 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

Turning to the final category, this facility received a B- in nursing, which is a respectable grade. In calculating our nursing ratings, we assess both nursing hours and the skill levels of the nurses. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this place got dinged a bit for its nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality metrics. With less than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this statistic. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a system of turning residents at least once a day.