Berkley Valley Convalescent Hospital

In addition to earning a great overall score, this facility also received an elite nursing rating. We gave them one of our better scores in that area, with an A-. When calculating our nursing ratings, we weigh both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of the nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this place 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving a resident more frequently.

This nursing home fared well in our short-term care category. Indeed, we awarded it a score of A- for that category, which is one of our most favorable scores. In our short-term care rating, we attempt to craft a meaningful barometer for rehabilitation. In doing so, we look at a facility's level of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. It doesn't look like this nursing home provided registered nurse or physical therapist staffing data. Finally, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.1 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

This nursing home received a very good inspection report this year as well. It received one of our higher scores in that area with a grade of B. Inspection scores are based on several datapoints located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that score well in this category typically have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these facilities generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple relatively minor deficiencies aren't the end of the world.

The last category we graded is long-term care. This nursing home was given a grade of C for this category. In computing our long-term care scores, we look at the assistance with daily living offered to a facility's patients. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is higher than most nursing homes. This facility keeps its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.