Citizens Medical Center

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home an A for short-term care. In the category of short-term care, we attempt to evaluate indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We assess a facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. It does not appear that this facility submitted data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 7.5 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

Adding to its high-end assessments in other areas, we gave this nursing home a grade of A- for our long-term care rating. In a long-term care environment, the primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. Clearly we were happy with what we found here in this area.

We awarded this facility an A- for inspections. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating our inspection grades. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some can be relatively insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

In the final category, this nursing home also was awarded a very strong nursing rating, with a grade of B+. This wrapped up a very impressive profile. When determining our nursing scores, we weigh both nursing hours and the training levels of the nurses. This particular nursing home provided 0 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a resident even once per day.