Fort Lauderdale Health and Rehab Center

On top of faring well overall, this nursing home received high marks in the area of short-term care as well. As a result, it received our highest score in that category with an A+. In our short-term care category, we try to create a fair gauge for rehabilitation. In this process, we look at the nursing home's levels of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we assessed in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 6.2 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Adding to its impressive category scores, this facility also excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. This facility received 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies to create an immediate risk to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Building on its high-end resume, this facility also was given an excellent long-term care score, with a score of A. When nursing homes receive this type of score in this category it is usually a good sign for resident care and indicates that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses and aids. After we finished assessing the amount of care provided by nurses, we turned to the facility's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia sadly is often a deadly condition for nursing home patients so we like it when a facility doesn't leave this to chance. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

In the final category we graded, this nursing home received a very strong grade of A- in our nursing category. With this grade, the facility completed a straight A report card. Our nursing score weighs many data points. The most important factor is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a protocol of turning patients at least once a day.