Diversicare of Bessemer
820 Golf Course Road, Bessemer AL 35020 · (205) 425-5241 · 85.72% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
With an address in Bessemer, Alabama, Diversicare of Bessemer is one of five facilities in this city. Featuring an overall grade of B+, this nursing home should work for most prospective residents. We were pleased to find out that this was in line with the other facilities in Bessemer, which is one of the better cities in Alabama to find a nursing home. This nursing home was better in some categories than others, but it did not have any poor grades in any of our major categories. More information about these categories can be found below.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 180 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this nursing home earned near flawless government inspections in recent years. We gave them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with better grades in this area most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Fortunately, although this place had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
This nursing home performed well in the category of long-term care. Indeed, we gave it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our most dominant scores. In a long-term care setting, the primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 84.586464 percent of its residents. This is slightly less than we were hoping for but still a reasonably acceptable percentage. Lastly, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. Here we found that this nursing home had 3.26 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Although this admittedly wasn't as impressive as most of its other scores in this area, this figure can be skewed for some nursing homes based on the medical complexity of residents.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home's next best category was nursing. We awarded it a grade of B- in this category. While this wasn't quite as good as some of its other category grades, this isn't a bad score either. Our nursing rating is mostly associated with a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages just 3.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day, which is well below average. Finally, we also baked a few quality measures into our nursing scores. This facility was subpar in two of the major metrics we look at, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. These areas are typically indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.
Short-term Care Quality
The next area we looked at is short-term care. In that area, we awarded this facility a decent grade of B-. This actually was this facility's least impressive area. In calculating these short-term care ratings, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to formulate a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. It performed decently in this area, with 48.8 percent of its residents returning home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Diversicare of Bessemer Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic is an indication of the percent of long-term stay patients which suffer from new or worsened pressure ulcers. We have found that pressure ulcers are a reliable measure of the quality of nursing care a nursing home provides.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percent of residents who suffered from a fall which resulted in severe injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percent of long-term care residents who have experienced urinary tract infections. Although more infections could reflect poorly on a nursing home's hygiene protocols, it can be difficult to compare different facilities due to facilities having inconsistent reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term patients taking antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic medications serve an important medical purpose, it is important to confirm these medications are being used appropriately. In limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest that a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percent of patients who were given antianxiety drugs. These medications are generally prescribed to patients suffering from anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term care residents demonstrating symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percent of patients who received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percentage of patients that needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care. There is typically a correlation between avoiding hospitalizations and the quality of nursing home care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This datapoint measures the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This is a measure of the percent of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many in the industry believe that this is a reasonable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better