Fernhill Estates

We would like to point out that this facility's inspection score exceeded its overall grade. This facility earned a grade of B+ in this category, which is one of our better grades. Our inspection scores account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this category usually have very few severe deficiencies. Sadly, this nursing home received a category L deficiency, which is unexpected based on its inspection score. This category of deficiency means inspectors discovered a widespread deficiency placing resident safety or health in immediate danger. In spite of this major red flag, other aspects of this facility's inspection report gave us some hope.

One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In that area, we gave this nursing home an B. The nursing score consists of many datapoints, many of which are associated with nursing hours. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of turning a patient more frequently.

We also gave this facility an impressive score in short-term care. This nursing home received a B in this category, which is one of our better scores. Short-term care scores are critical for prospective residents seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes more skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a broad spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Turning to our last category, this facility was given a B- in long-term care, which we consider to be a respectable rating. For prospective patients seeking a permanent place to live rather than skilled nursing, long-term care is an important category. Once we looked at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination records. Candidly, we were a bit worried that this facility vaccinated 71.17117 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which happens to be quite a bit lower than what we expected. Nevertheless, this place was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.