Gray Health and Rehabilitation

The main reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it received an elite inspection score. In fact, its inspection grade was far superior to its overall grade. In our inspections category, we gave this facility a grade of A+. Our inspection ratings account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this area typically have very few of these severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Additionally, we also would like to note that this facility was given strong long-term care marks in this assessment. We awarded them one of our higher scores in that area, with a B. This turned out to be the facility's second best grade. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in this category it generally means it's well-staffed and is an overall good place to reside on a permanent basis. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is significantly higher than the average nursing home. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This nursing home was awarded its next best category grade in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a grade of C in this category, which is a reasonably acceptable grade. Short-term care ratings are critical for prospective residents needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a wide range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. This nursing home employs both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities employ these skilled professionals. Finally, we assessed the number of residents who eventually returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually well below average.

The final category we rated was nursing, which ended up being this facility's weakest area. It received a lowly F for this category, which is clearly a major disappointment. There are quite a few criteria within this area. Many of the factors reflect levels of nurse staffing. This facility averaged a meager 3.2 hours of nursing care per resident daily. To go along with its subpar totals in the area of nursing hours per patient, this facility also didn't perform as well in the quality-based measures we looked at in computing our nursing scores. We looked at the percentage of residents sustaining major falls and pressure ulcers. This facility had more falls and pressure ulcers than the average nursing home.