Bethesda Health Care Facility

On top of performing well in its overall grade, this facility performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category typically have very few severe deficiencies. This nursing home was hit with 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to be an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so favorably is that it was awarded a strong long-term care score. Indeed, long-term care is its second best category grade. In that category, we gave this facility a score of A-. Facilities that do well in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to patients. One of the statistics we considered in addition to nursing hours is vaccines. This nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. This is a reliable method to avoid unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations for the elderly population. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility's next best category grade came in the area of nursing. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of B-. This wasn't quite on par with some of its other category grades mentioned above. Our nursing score looks at the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We look at both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the number of hours spent with patients. This facility provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is a somewhat discouraging figure which is well below average. Finally, while this place got docked a bit for its nursing hours, it excelled in some of our quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, it fared very well in this statistic.

Turning to the final area, we gave this facility a grade of D in short-term care. This was the nursing home's weakest category rating. Unfortunately, this score hurt the nursing home's overall profile to a certain degree. In determining our short-term care scores, we look at a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This category is more often than not a meaningful assessment of the nursing home's rehabilitation. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the measures we assessed. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. This was not a strength for this nursing home. We found that just 3.9 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, around half of their patients are able to return home so this is well below average.