Diversicare of Providence

While this facility's overall grade was as bad as it gets, it actually didn't perform terribly in the area of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a B- for that category, which is one of our better scores. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating these inspection scores. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more important than the number of deficiencies, as some of these can be quite insignificant. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This tells you the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. Nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we gave this facility an C. We analyzed the levels of nurses at the facility, in addition to the quantity of hours those nurses were with residents, in calculating our rating in this area. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this place actually excelled in some of the quality measures we assessed. In fact, it performed well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be indicators of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is just as important as the number of hours of care offered.

We awarded this facility a grade of just D for our short-term care grade. This is not one of our better scores. Short-term care ratings are based in part on a nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This means a wide spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other forms of therapy. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. Lastly, we assessed the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. This wasn't a strength for this facility. We found that just 4.3 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home. At most facilities, around half of their residents are able to return home so this is well below average.

The last category we looked at was long-term care. Unfortunately, we gave it an F for this area, which is a poor grade. For prospective patients looking for a permanent place to live rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are a key measure. Once we assessed the quantity of nursing care, we turned to the facility's vaccination data. We were pleased to find that this facility vaccinated 94.117645 percent of its patients for pneumonia. To our surprise, this facility also keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had just 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.