Cedar Hill Healthcare Center

Although we did not have many positive things to say about this facility's overall grade, it earned a respectable government inspection report this year. It received a decent score in that area with a B-. Inspection scores weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

We awarded this facility a respectable grade in the area of nursing as well, with a grade of C. Nursing scores are largely tied to the facility's nurse staffing. This place provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a low total compared with most other nursing homes. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we looked at. In fact, it performed well in terms of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care. In many cases, the quality of nursing care is every bit as important as the quantity of hours of care provided.

The next area we analyzed was short-term care, where this facility was awarded a grade of C in this area. In calculating our short-term care grades, we assess the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This score is typically a fair measure of a facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. Unfortunately, we found that this facility provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The more important thing is determining what bearing this had on the quality of care. Lastly, we looked at the number of residents who returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was quite a bit below average.

The final category we scored is long-term care, which was a weak spot for this nursing home. We gave this nursing home a grade of D for the area of long-term care. For residents looking for a permanent place to live rather than rehabilitation, long-term care is an important category. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccinations. Fortunately, this nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccination to 99.28315 percent of its residents. Surprisingly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than the average nursing home. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.