Golden Years of Walworth

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great facility is that it earned a strong short-term care grade. This turned out to be its best category. In that category, we awarded this facility an A. With our short-term care grade, we try to craft a sound measure for rehabilitation. In doing so, we assess a facility's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last datapoint we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 5.4 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing score. In that category, we awarded this facility an A. In computing our nursing ratings, we analyze both nursing hours and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of moving residents even once per day.

This facility also was awarded a high-end long-term care grade. In fact, this turned out to be this facility's third best category score. In that area, we awarded this facility a score of A. Facilities that excel in this category typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. In addition to assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is far higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Finally, we also awarded this facility a score of B for our inspections rating. This nursing home didn't have any glaring weaknesses. These inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't deem 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.