Bells Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

We also wanted to point out that this facility earned near flawless inspections in recent years. We gave them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing these inspection grades. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being relatively minor. While this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. We should point out that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in the industry.

Among its many impressive grades, this facility earned an excellent nursing score. We gave it a grade of B+ in that area. Nursing grades are largely tied to the nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as employing a policy of moving a patient more frequently.

This facility received a favorable long-term care grade as well. We awarded it one of our better grades in that category with a score of B+. Long-term care ratings of this caliber generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. After considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 96.2585 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents out of the hospital. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents 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.

The next category we assessed was short-term care. In that area, we awarded this facility a solid grade of C. This actually turned out to be this nursing home's least impressive area. In determining these short-term care ratings, we look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to devise a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 4.2 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.