Betty Ann Nursing Center

Although we didn't give this facility a good overall score, we did give it a relatively strong grade in the area of inspections, where it earned a grade of B. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. It is typically best to avoid places that had too many deficiencies. While this place had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies aren't the end of the world.

The next highest area we awarded this facility in any category came in the category of long-term care, where we gave it a C. Our long-term care grade focuses on a nursing home's assistance with daily living rather than the skilled therapy or medical services that are critical to a skilled nursing facility. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 92.64706 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which happens to be slightly less than we expected but still a decent percentage. Fortunately, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facilities next most favorable area was short-term care. We awarded it a C in this area. This is essentially a middle of the road score in this category. In the area of short-term care, we strive to assess indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We look at a nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. We were surprised to find that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we assessed. It supplied fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. The final measure we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return home. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.

Switching gears to our next area, this nursing home was given a grade of C in nursing, which we consider to be a decent rating. Our nursing rating considers several data points. The most important variable is the number of hours nurses spent with patients. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a lower figure than we are used to seeing. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility actually excelled in some of the quality measures we looked at. It scored well when it comes to avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be indicators of the quality of nursing care. In many cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the quantity of hours of care provided.