Buckingham's Choice

On top of receiving a strong overall grade, this nursing home also excelled in our inspections category, which is based on the facility's inspection reports. We awarded it an A for this area. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some end up being relatively insignificant. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also fared very well in the category of short-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A. Only a select group of facilities fared better in this area. Our short-term care scores are based on the facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a broad scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final metric we assessed in this category is the number of residents who ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that 4.6 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

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. The nursing rating is based on several subcategories, however, the most important consideration is the quantity of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well in the area of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Switching gears to our next category, this nursing home also excelled in the long-term care category. We awarded it a grade of B+ for this category. This finalized a very impressive profile. Facilities that do well in long-term care typically provide residents with better supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. After we finished assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses, we then looked at the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia is often a life threatening condition for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a nursing home doesn't take any chances. Lastly, 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.