Garfield County Nursing Home

On top of receiving a great overall score, this place also received top notch health inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that area, with an A. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection scores. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being relatively minor. While this place had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple relatively minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.

Among the reasons we rated this nursing home so well is that it received a dominant short-term care score. Indeed, short-term care ended up being its second highest category grade. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of A. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for patients looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes more skilled nursing services. This includes a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

Another one of this facility's impressive category grades came in the area of nursing care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. In computing our nursing ratings, we weigh both nursing hours and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home provides 0.5 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 typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The last area we assessed is long-term care, in which this nursing home was given a grade of C. While this proved to be its lowest category rating, this is still not a poor grade. For prospective residents seeking a permanent place to live as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care grades are very important. Once we finished looking at the volume of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. Frankly, we were a bit worried that this facility vaccinated only 87.323944 percent of its patients against pneumonia. On a more positive note, 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 number.