Brian Center Hlth & Retirement

Although we didn't rate this nursing home favorably overall, we actually gave it an excellent score in the area of inspections, where it earned an A-. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. It is typically in your best interest to avoid places that had a long list of severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. A few minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

This facility was given its next most favorable category score in the area of short-term care. We gave this nursing home a grade of B- in this area, which is a decent grade. Our short-term care scores are likely more critical for individuals requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically mandates more skilled nursing services. This includes not just nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. In this facility's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than the typical facility. The final item we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 5 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

We awarded this nursing home a grade of just D for our long-term care rating. This is not an impressive grade. For prospective residents seeking a permanent place to live as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care grades are a key measure. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. We were optimistic to find that this facility vaccinates 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Surprisingly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than the average nursing home. Sadly, a few of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.

The final area we rated was nursing. Sadly, it received an F in this area, which is a rock bottom score. Our nursing grade considers a host of data points. The most heavily weighted factor is the amount of time nurses spent with patients. This place averaged a meager 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day. This number is far below average. To pair with its below average total nursing hours per patient, this facility had really bad scores in many of the quality-based metrics we looked at in determining our nursing scores. For starters, we looked at the percentage of patients sustaining falls which led to serious injury. This nursing home was at more than 150 percent of the national average in this statistic. This is quite alarming in light of the fact that many falls could likely be prevented with better nursing care. This ended up sealing the facility's fate of receiving a poor nursing grade.