Emerald Coast Center

In addition to being a respectable facility overall, this facility also excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned a grade of A+. Few nursing homes performed better in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are relatively minor. Although this place had some deficiencies on its report, none were severe based on CMS' scale. A couple minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facility also received a strong grade in our long-term care category. We gave this facility a better than average grade of B+ in this category. Facilities that do well in this category tend to provide patients with more supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. Once we concluded our assessment of the quantity of nursing care, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 99.39577 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia is too frequently a dangerous ailment for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home does not roll the dice on this issue. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Next we looked at nursing grades, where this nursing home received an F, which is a rock bottom grade. This area was definitely not a strength for this facility. In computing our nursing grades, we factor in both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This place provided a meager 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing ratings. This facility performed well in the area of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls.

The last category we analyzed was short-term care, which ended up being this nursing home's weakest category. Sadly, it received a lowly F for this area, which is certainly very concerning. Our short-term care ratings are believed to be more critical for patients requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates additional skilled nursing. This means not just nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Based on its score in this category, we were not stunned to learn that this place is well below average in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its patients based on the measures we looked at. Honestly, this was what we expected here. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents that who were able to eventually return home from this facility. This facility didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 3.4 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.