Fairfield Memorial Hospital

One of the many reasons this place ended up being a great nursing home is that it received an A+ in our inspections category. This is just about as good as it gets in this category. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places with higher scores in this category typically dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this place had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose 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 facility also received an A+ for its long-term care grade. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is far higher than the average nursing home. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This nursing home also was given a fine short-term care score. Indeed, this turned out to be this facility's third strongest category grade. In that category, this facility received a grade of A. Our short-term care grades are probably most meaningful for people requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation usually mandates more skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not only nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.5 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

In the final area, this facility also received an excellent nursing grade, with a grade of A-. This wrapped up a very strong report card. Our nursing category weighs quite a few components, most of which are based on nursing hours. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.