Denver Sunset Home

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home also received first-rate government inspections in recent years. We gave it one of our better scores in this category, with an A. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing these inspection scores. One critical factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are quite minor. While this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means the government inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home received strong marks in the area of long-term care as well. In fact, we awarded it one of our most favorable scores in that area with a area of A. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.5 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes.

Turning to our third area, this facility also earned a grade of B for its short-term care rating. This is an above average score in this category. In calculating our short-term care grades, we size up the nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This score is frequently a reliable measure of the nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. This nursing home elevated its grade in this category by offering more care from registered nurses to its residents than the average facility. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

The next category we rated is nursing, in which this facility was awarded a B-. This turned out to be this nursing home's weakest area. This is still not a bad grade. Our nursing rating is primarily based on the facility's level of nurse staffing. Based on the CMS data, this nursing home offers 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also weighed some quality-based measures. This place scored well in a few of the quality-based metrics we assessed. In terms of the number of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, this place beat the national average.