Freedom Plaza Care Center

On top of being a first rate facility overall, this facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received an A+. Few nursing homes fared better in this category. We assessed the levels of nurses working for the facility, as well as the quantity of hours the nurses were with residents, in determining our rating in this category. This facility provided 0.6 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 Arizona in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving a patient more frequently.

This nursing home also received an A+ for its short-term care grade. In computing our short-term care grades, we size up the nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This area is often a useful measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final metric we assessed in this category is the number of patients that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 7.3 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

Amazingly, we also awarded this nursing home yet another A+ in the area of inspections. Inspection ratings account for several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple minor dings aren't the end of the world.

In our last category, this facility also was given a very strong long-term care grade, with an A-. This completed an elite profile. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in long-term care it typically means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.