Carol Woods

In addition to receiving an elite overall score, this nursing home also earned an A+ inspection grade. This is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. An A+ in this category is one of the best complements we can pay to a facility. Perhaps the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among its many elite grades, this facility was given a top-shelf long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a score of A- in that area. Nursing homes that receive this kind of score in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure patients are kept in good health. One of the statistics we considered after nursing hours is vaccines. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a proven method to minimize unnecessary hospitalizations for the aged 65 and up population. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This nursing home also was elite in the area of short-term care, where we awarded it a score of A-. Very few nursing homes fared better in this area. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for patients looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. We were not able to track down information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The last datapoint we looked at in this category is the number of patients that returned home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

The last category we assessed was nursing. We gave this facility a solid score in this category, with a B-. Even though this wasn't as dominant as many of its other scores, it is still a middle of the pack score. Nursing scores are tied to nurse staffing levels. This facility provided just 0 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a relatively low total compared to most other nursing homes. Finally, we like to look at quality-based metrics, such as the percent of patients who experienced pressure ulcers and major falls. Sometimes these statistics are decent indicators of the quality of nursing care.