Desert Haven Care Center

It should also be noted that this nursing home's inspection score outpaced its overall score. In fact, we gave it a B+ for its inspections rating, which is a very solid score. These inspection grades weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This nursing home was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This tells you that CMS didn't consider any of these deficiencies to pose an imminent risk to patient health or safety. A couple relatively minor deficiencies are not something to panic about.

This nursing home also was given an impressive grade in our long-term care category. We awarded this facility an above average grade of B+ in that category. Long-term care grades of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia sadly can be a life threatening health condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home does not roll the dice on this issue. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing grade. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B+ in that category, which is one of our better scores. Our nursing score weighs several datapoints, most of which are associated with levels of nurse staffing. This facility 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 place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This facility's worst area was short-term care, which is the last category we analyzed. In this category, we awarded this facility a grade of D. In computing our short-term care ratings, we assess a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other types of therapists. This grade is generally a solid measure of the nursing home's rehabilitation services. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The final statistic we looked at in this category is the number of patients who eventually returned home from the facility. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this metric as well, with just 0 percent of its patients returning home. Unfortunately, this was well below the national average.