Del Mar Convalescent Hospital

This facility received a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to emphasize its nearly flawless inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this category. Our inspection scores are based on items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that score well in this category typically have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. While this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple relatively minor dings are not the end of the world.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this nursing home an B. The nursing rating includes many factors, however, the main consideration is the level of nurse hours spent with patients. This nursing home provides 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 place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home was given its next most favorable category score in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a grade of B- in this area, which is a respectable grade. Short-term care scores are based on the nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a broad spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, in addition to other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final datapoint we considered in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to return home from the facility. We found that just 4.5 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

The next area we graded is long-term care. We gave this nursing home a grade of C in that area. For prospective residents seeking a permanent place to live as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is more than the majority of nursing homes. This place keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.