Excell Health Care Center

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating these inspection ratings. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be relatively insignificant. This facility was hit with 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also was given a dominant long-term care grade. This actually is its second most impressive category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. Long-term care ratings in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is significantly higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facility is also strong in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B. It outperformed most nursing homes in this category. Our nursing rating considers a host of factors. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility California in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of turning a resident more often.

The next category we looked at is this facility's weakest area. Nevertheless, even its worst category would be a strength for many facilities. We awarded it a strong grade of B in short-term care. Our short-term care scores are based on the nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a wide scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, in addition to other forms of therapy. We weren't able to locate registered nurse or physical therapy staffing data for this facility. The final item we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that 4.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.