Garrett Regional Medical Center

In addition to faring well overall, this facility earned a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it received one of our best grades in that category with an A+. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Facilities with better grades in this category typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. It doesn't appear that we have deficiency data for this facility. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home received superb marks in the category of short-term care. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a grade of A+. In forming our short-term care grades, we quantify the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The purpose is to devise a measure for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents that were able to return home from this facility. We found that 6.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

Building on its strong assessment, this nursing home also was given a superb long-term care score, with a score of A. For patients seeking a permanent residence as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are a key measure. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. We were not able to find information on vaccination rates. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

In the final category, this nursing home also was given an impressive nursing rating, with an A. This topped off a rare straight A profile. When computing our nursing ratings, we assess both staffing levels and the skill levels of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.9 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as having a policy of moving patients more frequently.