Bellevue Care Center

To pair with its favorable overall score, we awarded this facility an A+ for inspections. Arguably the most important factor we look at in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this place had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also gave this facility a score of A- for our long-term care grade. Nursing homes that receive this type of score in this category tend to provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are well cared for. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is too frequently a deadly health condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This facility's next best category was its nursing grade, where it received a grade of B-. While this didn't quite match its scores in some of the categories discussed above, this is still a decent score. Our nursing score looks at the facility's nurse staffing levels. We consider both the levels of skill of the nurses and the amount of time spent with patients. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Lastly, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it actually excelled in a few of these quality-based metrics. With less than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared remarkably well in this metric. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a system of moving residents more often.

The last area we analyzed was short-term care, where this facility received a grade of C. This actually was this nursing home's weakest area. This is nevertheless not a poor grade. Our short-term care grades are critical for residents seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically mandates more highly-skilled nursing services. This means a vast range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that just 5 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is actually below average.