Foothill Regional Medical Center D/P Snf

On top of receiving a strong overall grade, this facility also received first-rate health inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that category, with an A. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining our inspection ratings. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being relatively minor. This facility was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to be an immediate threat to patient safety or health. The fact that the deficiencies were relatively minor leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. Nursing grades are primarily tied to the facility's nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 1 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving residents more frequently.

This nursing home is also strong in the area of long-term care, where it was given a score of B+. It performed more favorably than most facilities in this area. Long-term care grades in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 93.13725 percent of its patients, which is a bit below what we expected. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facility's least impressive category is short-term care, which is the final category we assessed. In this area, we gave this nursing home a grade of D. In determining our short-term care ratings, we assess a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This score is typically a solid assessment of the nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. In this nursing home's case, we found that it provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. The last measure we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to return home from the nursing home. This facility struggled quite a bit in this metric as well, with just 0 percent of its patients returning home.