Ginger Cove

With an address in Annapolis, Maryland, Ginger Cove is one of five available facilities there. This turns out to be an A+ rated facility, which is the highest grade we offer. Not surprisingly, this proved to be quite a bit better than most of the nursing homes in Annapolis. Headlining this facility's exemplary profile is its nursing rating, which is addressed in the next section.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. The nursing grade is based on several subcategories, but the main one is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This place provides an incredible 5 hours of nursing care per resident each day. Out of that total, many of the hours were provided by registered nurses, which is one of the most highly trained levels of nurses. On top of providing impressive levels of care, this facility also excelled in several of the quality-based metrics we assessed. With below 5 percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it fared as well as any nursing home the nation in this category.

Another reason we rated this facility so favorably is that it received an A+ short-term care score. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. In determining our short-term care ratings, we assess the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This grade is considered to be a meaningful measure of a facility's rehabilitation. One reason for this facility's strong score in this category is that it provides more care with registered nurses to its residents than the average nursing home. The final measure we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in Maryland in this area with 64.3 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, at most facilities, less than half of their short-term patients are able to return home.

Turning to our inspection category, this facility excelled in that area, which is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. In fact, we awarded it an A for that category. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this place had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This tells you that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Switching gears to the last category, this facility was awarded a very strong long-term care grade. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A in that area, resulting in this facility receiving straight A's. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. In addition to offering very impressive levels of nurse staffing, this nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. This figure is also much better than the average nursing home. This combination proved to be successful as this nursing home keeps its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.52 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.