Gettysburg Center

In addition to being a respectable nursing home overall, this facility also excelled in the category of inspections, where it earned an A. Few facilities performed better in this category. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities with higher grades in this category most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. This facility was hit with 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

One of the other reasons we graded this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing score. In that area, we gave this facility an B-. In determining our nursing ratings, we analyze both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of those nurses. This facility averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident each day, which is well below average. Finally, nursing ratings also factor in quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home actually performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is typically an indicator that a place has quality controls in place. Some falls can be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses to assist its residents.

We also gave this facility a solid grade in the category of short-term care, where it received a grade of C. In determining our short-term care scores, we size up the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly trained professionals. This rating is more often than not a solid measure of a facility's rehabilitation services. Unfortunately, this facility was below average in terms of its number of registered nurse and physical therapy hours provided to its patients based on the measures we assessed. The last statistic we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents who who were able to eventually return home from the facility. We found that just 5 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. This figure was below the national average.

The next category we scored was long-term care, which is this facility's weakest area. We gave this facility a grade of D in this area. When facilities receive a score in this range in long-term care it typically means the nursing home didn't perform well in our quality measures relating to patient care. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. We found that this facility vaccinated only 76 percent of its patients, which is a bit of a concern. To our surprise, this facility actually fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. This was its best score in this category.