Blue Mountain Care Center

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home excelled in our shot-term care category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category. In a long-term care environment, the facility's primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 87.93104 percent of its residents, which is a few points less than we anticipated. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping 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.

Adding to its fine assessment, this nursing home also was given an excellent short-term care grade, with a grade of A-. Short-term care scores are crucial for residents requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes additional skilled nursing services. This includes a vast spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we considered in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Adding to its impressive resume, this nursing home also excelled in our nursing category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- for that category. Our nursing score consists of several components, but the primary consideration is the level of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Adding to its other impressive category grades, we gave this nursing home a B+ for its inspection rating. Inspection grades account for several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this area tend to have few severe deficiencies. This facility received 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies to create an immediate threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.