Cottage Grove Place

In addition to earning a great overall rating, this nursing home fared even better in our inspections category which is associated with the nursing home's recent government inspections. We gave it an A+ for that category, which is one of our highest grades. Inspection ratings account for several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this area generally have few of these severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. A couple relatively minor deficiencies are not something to panic about.

This facility was given a strong short-term care score as well. We gave it one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. In determining our short-term care ratings, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our goal is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 5.3 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Next, we looked at the nursing category where we awarded this nursing home a grade of B-. This facility didn't perform quite as well in this category as it did in some other categories. Nevertheless, this is still a respectable score. Our nursing grade weighs quite a few factors, most of which are associated with nursing hours. This particular facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This figure is significantly below average. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures. Although this place got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in a few of these quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it did very well in this area. This is often an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving residents more frequently.

Moving on to the fourth area, this facility was given a B- in long-term care, which is generally an acceptable rating. In the area of long-term care, we focus on the amount of care provided by a facility, as opposed to more medically-intensive services. After assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.