Emerald Coast Center

Although we gave this facility a poor overall rating, we actually gave it a somewhat respectable score in the area of inspections, where it received a B-. This was quite a bit better than its other category grades. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating our inspection scores. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be relatively insignificant. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Lastly, this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.

This nursing home actually received a decent grade in the area of nursing as well. We awarded it a grade of B- for that category, which is not a bad score. Our nursing rating includes quite a few datapoints, many of which are associated with nursing hours. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a lower figure than we are used to seeing. Lastly, our nursing ratings also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this place performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is generally a good indicator that a place has quality controls in place. Many falls could be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses aids to assist its patients.

This facility's third most favorable category was its long-term care grade, where it was awarded a grade of B-. In the area of long-term care, we focus on the amount of services offered by a nursing home, rather than more healthcare-oriented services. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this nursing home administered the vaccine to 96.56161 percent of its patients, which is an above average statistic. This facility keeps its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Moving on to the next area, this facility was given a grade of C for short-term care, which is generally a decent rating. Our short-term care scores are based in part on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a vast spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, in addition to other variations of therapy. In this place's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. The last measure we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 4.6 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is actually below average.