Healthcare Center of Orange County

While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable inspection report this year. As a result, it received a decent grade in that category with a score of B-. Our inspection grades weigh several factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

We were also pleasantly surprised to find that this nursing home earned a solid long-term care rating in our assessment. We gave it a B- in this category. Our long-term care grade is typically used to measure a nursing home's performance as a traditional convalescent home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services offered by a skilled nursing facility. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is higher than the average nursing home. This facility was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.04 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

We were surprised to find that this facility also excelled in the category of nursing. In fact, we awarded it an impressive grade of D for that category, which is one of our highest grades. Our nursing rating considers several datapoints. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This facility provided just 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

The next category we looked at is short-term care. It received an abysmal F for this area, which is a very poor grade. In forming our short-term care scores, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to devise a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different nursing homes. As you might expect, we found that this facility provides significantly less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per patient than a typical nursing home. Finally, we assessed the number of patients that ultimately returned home from this nursing home. This facility didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 3.9 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.