Fruitvale Healthcare Center

To pair with its strong overall score, this facility received a B+ in nursing. This is an above average grade in this category. When determining our nursing ratings, we factor in both nursing hours and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This facility received an impressive short-term care grade as well. We gave it one of our higher scores in that category with a grade of B+. In calculating our short-term care ratings, we look at a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other types of therapists. This area is frequently a meaningful measure of the nursing home's rehabilitation. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we looked at in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 4.3 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

The third area we assessed is long-term care. This nursing home was awarded a favorable long-term care score, with a grade of B+ in this category. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in long-term care it is a good sign for patient care and suggests that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses and aids. Once we assessed the volume of nursing care, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia is too frequently a deadly condition for nursing home residents so we strongly prefer when a facility doesn't leave its residents vulnerable. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Lastly, turning to our inspection category, we gave this nursing home a C. Our inspection rating is based on the facility's inspection reports. Although this is not a bad score, it is this facility's weakest area. We believe that one of the most critical factors in evaluating an inspection report is deficiencies. In this regard, we especially look at the severity of those deficiencies. This place was hit with 3 deficiencies on its government inspection report, but none were in categories G through L. This means that inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent danger to patient safety or health. Unfortunately, we also need to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received significant government fines in recent years.