Carrara

This nursing home earned a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its excellent health inspections in recent years. We gave them an A+ in this category. Our inspection ratings account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. This nursing home received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe. This tells you that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies to pose an immediate risk to resident health or safety. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in the industry.

This nursing home's long-term care rating is one of its higher scores. The facility was given a grade of B- in this category. Long-term care ratings are critical for prospective residents needing non-healthcare services such as personal care. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Thankfully, this facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is a very solid percentage. This place also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facility's next most favorable category was its short-term care score, where it was awarded a B-. Our short-term care ratings are based in part on the facility's quantity of skilled nursing services. This means a broad spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. We weren't able to track down information on registered nurse or physical therapy staffing for this nursing home. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.3 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

This facility's weakest area is nursing, which is the final category we scored. For this category, we awarded this facility a grade of just D. Our nursing grade features a variety of data points. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing scores. This facility fared well when it comes to avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.