Garden View Care Center at Dougherty Ferry

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility received an excellent long-term care grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in that category. Facilities that receive this type of score in long-term care tend to provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are kept in good health. After we finished assessing the volume of nursing care, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia can be a life threatening illness for nursing home patients so we prefer when a facility does not leave this to chance. Lastly, this place 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.

Adding to this nursing home's impressive resume, we awarded this facility an A- for our inspections rating. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. This nursing home received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to pose an immediate threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its strong resume, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A-. We weighed the qualifications of nurses at the facility, in addition to the quantity of hours the nurses worked with residents, in determining our grade in this category. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home 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 prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The final area we analyzed is short-term care. In this area, we awarded this facility an impressive grade of B. Short-term care grades are vital for individuals looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a wide spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we assessed in this area is the number of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.