Claridge Healthcare Center

This nursing home's inspection grade appears to be its best feature. The facility received a grade of B- in this category. Inspection grades are based on many items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key item to look for on these inspections. Severe deficiencies indicate a risk to patient safety. While this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This tells you that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

The next highest category we awarded this facility in any category came in the area of short-term care, where we gave it a B-. In determining our short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our goal is to create a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The key is determining what effect this had on the quality of care. The last item we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is below average.

Next, we looked at the nursing category where we awarded this nursing home a grade of B-, which is a decent grade. There are several criteria within this area. Many of these factors reflect staffing levels. This nursing home provides 0.2 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Finally, our nursing scores also consider quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this facility performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is usually an indicator that a facility has quality controls in place. Many falls could be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses aids to assist its residents.

The final category we analyzed is long-term care. We awarded it a C in that area. This is a perfectly acceptable grade in this category. Our long-term care ratings are based on a facility's amount of nursing care. This includes a vast range of personal care services, ranging from help with activities of daily living to routine medical services. Once we finished looking at the volume of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. We were optimistic to learn that this nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia. This nursing home also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.