Crandall Medical Center

In addition to faring well overall, this nursing home also earned a nearly flawless inspection report. Therefore, it earned one of our best scores in that area with a grade of A+. Our inspection scores account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this area usually have few severe deficiencies. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. A couple relatively minor dings aren't necessarily something to panic about.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. Our nursing score is mostly tied to the facility's level of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Additionally, this facility also was awarded favorable long-term care scores this year. Indeed, we gave it one of our better scores in that category, with a score of B+. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in this category it is typically a good sign for resident care and indicates that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses aids. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia can be a dangerous illness for nursing home patients so we prefer when a nursing home does not leave its residents vulnerable. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The final area we looked at is short-term care. We gave this nursing home one of our better scores in this category, with a B. Even though this wasn't as dominant as some of its other grades, it is nevertheless a perfectly acceptable score. Our short-term care ratings are thought to be most meaningful for residents requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires more highly-skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5 percent of this facility's patients returned home.