Fenton Healthcare

In addition to a strong overall score, this facility also earned favorable short-term care grades this year. We gave it one of our higher grades in that category, with a B+. In determining our short-term care ratings, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to create a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

In addition, this nursing home also excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an B+. Few nursing homes performed as well in this category. Inspection ratings take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This place received 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't consider any of these deficiencies an immediate threat to patient safety or health. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe made us feel better about this inspection report.

Adding to its profile, this facility also earned a grade of B for its nursing rating. This is a well above average score in this category. The nursing grade includes a host of datapoints. The most important factor is the number of hours nurses spent with patients. This facility provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well in terms of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

The next area we scored is long-term care. We awarded this nursing home a B- in that area. Long-term care ratings are important for prospective residents looking for personal care. After looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination record. We were pleased to learn that this nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.