Fairview Senior Living

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. Inspection scores account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its report, none were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home was awarded strong grades in the area of long-term care as well. As a result, we awarded it one of our best grades in that category with a score of A-. Nursing homes that receive this type of score in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to ensure patients are kept in good health. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 96.62162 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia sadly is often a deadly illness for nursing home residents so we like it when a facility does not roll the dice on this issue. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

The next category we looked at was short-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a grade of C. Our short-term care scores are likely most important for folks requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not only nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, it does not look like this facility submitted data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Finally, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.2 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.

The last area we scored is nursing, which ended up being this facility's least impressive area. We awarded this facility a grade of D in that area. Naturally, this grade hurt the facility's overall grade to some degree. Our nursing score assesses several subcategories, however, the main consideration is the number of nurse hours spent with patients. This particular facility provided a meager 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This statistic is significantly below average. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in calculating our nursing grades. This place fared well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care.