Catherine Kasper Life Center

On top of receiving a great overall grade, this facility fared even better in our inspections category which is associated with the facility's recent inspections. In fact, we gave it a grade of A for this category, which is one of our highest scores. These inspection scores take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this facility had some deficiencies on its report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home was awarded strong grades in the area of long-term care as well. In fact, we gave it one of our most superb scores in that area with a area of A. When facilities receive this kind of grade in this category it is usually a good sign for patient care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. Once we looked at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to the next area, this nursing home also earned a score of B+ for its short-term care rating. This is an above average grade in this area. With our short-term care category, we strive to forge a valuable measure for rehabilitation. In doing so, we analyze a facility's scope of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 5.4 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

The last category we scored was nursing. We awarded this nursing home an acceptable grade in that category, with a B-. While this isn't as strong as some of its other grades, it is nevertheless not the end of the world. Our nursing score includes numerous factors. The most important factor is the amount of time nurses spent with patients. This facility provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home actually fared better in some of the quality measures we assessed. It performed well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be measures of the quality of nursing care. In many cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the number of hours of care offered.