Cheyenne Mountain Center

Even though we gave this facility a poor overall grade, we gave it a fairly respectable grade in nursing, where it received a grade of B-. This was at least better than its other category scores. In calculating our nursing ratings, we assess both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of those nurses. This facility provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a somewhat concerning figure as it is well below the national average. Finally, our nursing scores also factor in quality-based measures, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours per resident, this place performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is generally a reliable indicator that a nursing home has quality controls in place. Many falls could be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses aids to assist its residents.

This nursing home was given its second highest category score in the area of short-term care. We awarded this facility a B- in this area, which is an acceptable grade. Our short-term care ratings are based on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a wide scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. In fact, it provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. The last measure we considered in this area is the number of patients that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 4.2 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.

This facility earned slightly below average government inspections in recent years. We gave them a C in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection grades. One critical factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some can be quite insignificant. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. Unfortunately, we also need to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received significant government fines in recent years.

The next area we rated was long-term care, where this facility was given a rock bottom grade in this category as well. We gave it a lowly F for this area, which is definitely a major concern. Facilities that do not fare well in this category typically aren't as well-staffed and are lagging in a few of the areas of routine healthcare services we assessed. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination statistics. We were a bit alarmed this facility vaccinated 74.79508 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which happens to be quite a bit lower than average. To our surprise, this facility actually fared well at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. This is its best feature in this category.