Diamond Cove

On top of having a decent overall score, we also wanted to point out that this nursing home received favorable nursing marks this year. We gave them one of our better scores in that area, with a B+. This proved to be the facility's top grade. The nursing score weighs many datapoints. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spent with patients. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed very well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

We also awarded this nursing home a solid score in the area of short-term care, where we gave it a B-. In the area of short-term care, we endeavor to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation. We look at the facility's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. In this nursing home's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than a typical facility. The final metric we considered in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 3.6 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is actually below average.

The third category we looked at was long-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a grade of B- in this area. In our long-term care score, we weigh the sheer quantity of services provided by a facility, along with a few qualitative metrics. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is more than most nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This nursing home did not receive a favorable inspection score. We gave it just a just D in this category. Inspection scores relate to a facility's inspection reports. One of the more important factors in evaluating an inspection report is deficiencies. We would scrutinize the severity of the deficiencies. This facility was assessed 2 deficiencies by CMS. The only favorable thing we can say is that none of the deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they posed a threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility also received 3 substantiated complaints in recent years. This is yet another bad sign.