Friends Nursing Home
17340 Quaker Lane, Sandy Spring MD 20860 · (301) 924-7531 · 72.68% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Friends Nursing Home is a facility located in Sandy Spring, Maryland, a city with 2,396 people. This nursing home proved to be an A rated facility. This nursing home received one of the best scores we offer. A grade of this caliber requires first-rate marks across the board. In fact, this facility has the prestigious distinction of being one of the 25 best facilities in Maryland. One of the best aspects of this nursing home's remarkable profile is its inspection rating. Inspection reports are discussed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 82 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Church related
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
On top of receiving a strong overall grade, this facility received an A+ inspection score. This score is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. An A+ in this area is one of the best complements we can pay to a nursing home. Our inspection ratings are tied to datapoints located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that receive favorable grades in this area have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
Contributing to its strong assessment, this nursing home also was awarded a dominant long-term care grade, with a score of A. For prospective residents in need of a permanent place to live as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care is an important category. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 93.78239 percent of its residents. This is somewhat lower than we expected but still a decent percentage. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.2 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes.
Short-term Care Quality
Turning the page to our third category, this facility was given a strong short-term care grade. In fact, it received a grade of A in this category. Our short-term care ratings are based on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This means a wide scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. This nursing home boosted its score in this category by offering more than 50% more physical therapy hours to its residents than the average facility. The final statistic we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it performed as well as just about any facility in Maryland in this area with 64.2 percent of its residents returning home.
Nurse Quality
The last category we assessed was nursing, where this nursing home was awarded a B+. This rounded out a very favorable profile. Only a select few facilities earned a B+ or better in every category. We weighed the levels of nurses at the nursing home, as well as the quantity of hours the nurses worked with patients, in calculating our score in this area. This nursing home provided 4.3 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is a very impressive statistic which typically corresponds with higher quality care. Lastly, this facility was also above average in each of the major quality measures we looked at in this category. It performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Friends Nursing Home Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percentage of patients who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are considered to be a barometer of nursing care at a nursing home. Pressure ulcers, also called bed sores, are often the result of residents staying in one position for too long.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This statistic tells you the percent of long-term stay residents which have sustained a fall which caused serious injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating our nursing grades.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of patients who suffered from a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be an indicator of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are routinely associated with a facility with lower levels of hygiene. Nevertheless, this metric can be skewed for certain nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for these infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percent of patients who were given antipsychotic drugs. These medications are used for several conditions, including Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percentage of residents prescribed antianxiety drugs. These medications are typically given to residents experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is a measure of the percent of long-term stay patients who are demonstrating symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percent of patients that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
Measures the percent of long-term care residents that needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as getting dressed and using the bathroom.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percentage of residents that remained mobile levels over time. Preserving mobility is often a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
Measures the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care. Minimizing hospitalizations is key to the physical well-being of residents.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This tells you the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term care. There is a correlation between having fewer hospitalizations and the quality of rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric measures the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percentage of short-term care patients who experienced functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better