Commander Nursing Center

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home received an A+ in the area of long-term care. When nursing homes receive this type of score in this category it is a good sign for resident care and indicates that the place is well-staffed with nurses aids. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is too frequently a life threatening condition for nursing home patients so we prefer when a nursing home does not roll the dice on this issue. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Adding to this facility's impressive resume, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection scores. One critical factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more important than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are quite minor. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report, which is still very impressive. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. We scrutinized the levels of nurses working for the nursing home, in addition to the quantity of hours the nurses spent with patients, in computing our rating in this area. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility 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 state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as employing a system of turning a patient even once per day.

The next area we analyzed was short-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a grade of B-. Although this wound up being its lowest category rating, this is still a middle of the pack score. With our short-term care rating, we try to create a meaningful gauge for rehabilitation. In this process, we analyze the nursing home's levels of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the number of residents who ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 4.8 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually well below the national average.