Evergreen Healthcare Center

This facility received a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its excellent inspections in recent years. We gave them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing these inspection scores. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some end up being quite minor. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G through L. This means that 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 couple of minor deficiencies shouldn't lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

We also gave this facility a middle of the pack score in the category of short-term care, where it received a grade of C. In our short-term care rating, we seek to forge a meaningful measure for rehabilitation. In this process, we look at a facility's levels of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The key is determining what bearing this had on the quality of care. The final datapoint we considered in this area is the number of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.

The third most favorable category we gave this nursing home in any category came in the category of long-term care, where we gave it a C. For residents seeking a permanent place to live as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are an important measure. On top of considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Switching gears to the last area, this nursing home didn't perform well. With a bottom of the barrel grade of F in nursing, this was its worst category grade. There are a number of data points within this category. Most of these criteria relate to levels of nurse staffing. This place offered just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is an alarmingly low total. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing ratings. This nursing home fared well in the area of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.