Green Hills Health Care Center

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Our inspection grades weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this area typically have very few 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.

We also awarded this facility a score of A+ for its long-term care grade. Facilities that do well in this category tend to be well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. One of the factors we considered after nursing hours is vaccinations. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a great way to minimize negative health outcomes for the elderly population. Clearly, this facility 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 an impressively low figure.

The third category we assessed is short-term care. This nursing home also received an A+ short-term care grade, rendering it one of the few facilities to be awarded multiple A+ category scores. Our short-term care scores are based on the nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This means a broad scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final metric we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We discovered that 6.1 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

Turning to our last category, this facility received a strong nursing score. We awarded it an A in this area, rounding out a straight A profile. We assessed the qualifications of nurses employed by the nursing home, as well as the quantity of time those nurses spent with patients, in computing our score in this category. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving patients more frequently.