Buena Vista Care Center is a large nursing home located in Santa Barbara, California. We have a high opinion of this nursing home, which we awarded a B+ overall. We were equally impressed with the city grade of facilities in Santa Barbara, making this a great place to find a nursing home. Based on our assessment, this place has quite a bit going for it. This place is stronger in some categories than others, but it didn't have any bad scores in any of the four major categories. More information about these categories can be found below.
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Buena Vista Care Center
- Nursing Home
- Memory Care
Updated Apr 1, 2023 by Nick Lata
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- Accepts Medicare 1
- Accepts Medicaid 1
- No CCRC
- Has Resident Council
- No Family Council
- For profit - Limited Liability company
- Offers Post-Acute Care
- Offers Inpatient Rehab
- Offers Outpatient Rehab
Specialized Services
- Personal Care
- Medication Management
- Home Making
- Transportation
- Speech Therapy
- Stroke Recovery
- Dentistry
- Wound Care
- Occupational Therapy
- Cardiac Therapy
- Podiatry
- Mental Health
- Physical Therapy
- Respiratory Therapy
- Nutritional Counseling
- Pharmacy
- Laboratory
- Recreational Therapy
- Pain Management
- Optometry
- Audiology
- Orthopedic Rehabilitation
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Registered Staff Hours
Short-term Care Quality
To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our short-term care grade. Short-term care grades are critical for patients needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes more highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a vast spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Unfortunately, it does not appear that this facility provided information on registered nurse or physical therapist staffing. Lastly, we considered the number of residents that who were able to eventually return home from this nursing home. We found that 6.4 percent of this facility's patients returned home.
Nurse Quality
This facility really excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Nursing ratings are primarily tied to the nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving patients even once per day.
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Facility Inspections
Another strong feature for this facility is that it excelled in the area of inspections, with a grade of B in that category. It outperformed most facilities in this area. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in determining our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Places with higher grades in this category typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few relatively minor deficiencies aren't the end of the world.
Long-term Care Quality
The final area we looked at is long-term care, where this facility received a grade of B-. This actually was this nursing home's worst area. This is nevertheless a middle of the pack score. In forming our long-term care ratings, we look at the nursing home's personal care services. One of the factors we considered on top of nursing hours is vaccines. Thankfully, this facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Lastly, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.
Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Buena Vista Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
In Buena Vista Care Center, 7.79% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percentage of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also known as bed sores, are often caused by residents not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing care can reduce the percentage of residents in a nursing home who sustain pressure ulcers.
Minimizes Serious Falls
In Buena Vista Care Center, 1.84% of Patients had Serious Falls
This is the percent of patients that have had a major fall. Falls leading to serious injuries are considered by many experts to be a barometer of nursing care at a nursing home. Falls leading to injury are often caused by lower quality nursing care.
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
In Buena Vista Care Center, 1.34% of Patients had UTIs
This datapoint indicates the percentage of long-term care residents that had a UTI. UTI's may be an indication of worse hygiene protocols. However, this statistic can be skewed for certain facilities due to varying reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
In Buena Vista Care Center, 10.3% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric gauges the percentage of long-term care residents who are given antipsychotic drugs. High levels of antipsychotic drug use may indicate that a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior in scenarios where such medications are not medically required. However, some nursing homes need to rely on these drugs due to an increased number of residents suffering from cognitive disorders.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
In Buena Vista Care Center, 13.84% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term stay residents who were prescribed antianxiety medication. These drugs are used to treat residents suffering from depression or anxiety.
Managing Depression Among Residents
In Buena Vista Care Center, 5.83% of Patients
This indicates the percent of patients demonstrating depressive symptoms. High rates of depression may imply lower quality care.
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
In Buena Vista Care Center, 95.65% of Patients
This metric measures the percentage of long-term care patients who received the flu and pneumonia vaccines.
Residents Maintain Autonomy
In Buena Vista Care Center, 8.26% Percentage of Patients
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay residents who needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as taking medications and taking a bath.
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
In Buena Vista Care Center, 10.41% Percentage of Residents
This is the percentage of residents who maintained mobility over time. Retaining mobility is usually a great sign for residents' well-being.
Hospitalizations
In Buena Vista Care Center, 1.78 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
This is the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care. There is a correlation between avoiding hospitalizations and the overall quality of nursing home care.
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
In Buena Vista Care Center, 10.41 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
This tells you the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Short-term Care: ER Visits
In Buena Vista Care Center, 11.34 Percentage of Patients
This datapoint is a measure of the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care. Staying out of the emergency room is one way to measure patient well-being during rehabilitation.
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
In Buena Vista Care Center, 79.12% Percentage of Resident
This tells you the percentage of short-term stay residents that experienced functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Scores for Santa Barbara, CA
- Overall Rating has a grade of A-minus
- Nurse Rating has a grade of A-minus
- Long-term Care Rating has a grade of B-plus
- Short-term Care Rating has a grade of A
- Inspection Rating has a grade of A
Looking for more options? Santa Barbara, California has 6 other nursing homes
Nearby Hospitals
- Goleta Valley Cottage HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 0.17 miles away351 S Patterson Ave Santa Barbara California 93111Voluntary non-profit - Other(805) 681-6446
- Santa Barbara Cottage HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 4.92 miles away400 West Pueblo Santa Barbara California 93102Voluntary non-profit - Private(805) 682-7111
Nearby Dialysis
- Fmc-Santa Barbara Community Dialysis Center2.93 miles away222 Pesetas Lane Santa Barbara California 93110Dialysis Stations: 14 (805) 964-7873
- Santa Barbara Artificial Kidney Center, LLC6.06 miles away1704 State Street Santa Barbara California 93101CMS Rating: 5 stars Dialysis Stations: 16 (805) 682-9942