Handmaker Home for the Aging

In addition to receiving a great overall score, this facility excelled at short-term care. In fact, we gave it an A- for that category. In computing our short-term care ratings, we scrutinize a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly trained professionals. This grade is frequently a useful measure of the facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last measure we looked at in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. This turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this nursing home an A-. In computing a facility's nursing score, we assess the quantity of hours nurses are with patients and the levels of training of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Adding to this facility's impressive resume, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A- for our inspections rating. Inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Although this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none of them were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in this industry.

The final category we scored is long-term care. This nursing home was awarded a favorable nursing score this year, with a grade of B. Even though this was not as dominant as many of its other category grades, this is still one of our stronger scores for this area. When nursing homes receive this type of score in this category it is typically a good sign for patient care and suggests that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. In addition to assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is significantly higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.