Caprice Health Care Center

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this category generally have few severe deficiencies. This facility was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies an immediate threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its strong resume, this nursing home also performed well in our long-term care category. In fact, it received a score of A- for the category. Nursing homes that excel in this category tend to provide patients with more supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility is also strong in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B+. It outperformed most nursing homes in this category. We assessed the qualifications of nurses working for the nursing home, as well as the quantity of time the nurses were with patients, in computing our score in this area. This particular nursing home provided 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 nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The last category we assessed is this nursing home's poorest category. Nevertheless, even its lowest point would be a strength for most facilities. We awarded it a strong grade of B in short-term care. Our short-term care ratings are considered to be more critical for those needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally requires higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes not just nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.8 percent of this facility's residents returned home.