Heritage Inn of Sandersville Health and Rehab

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among this facility's other accomplishments is its elite long-term care grade. We awarded them one of our best scores in that category, with a score of A-. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in long-term care it typically means it's well-staffed and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than the average nursing home. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This facility's third highest category ended up being short-term care. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of B-. Our short-term care grades are probably most critical for individuals needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates additional highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not only nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. We were pleased to find that this nursing home employs both registered nurses and physical therapists. The same can't be said for all nursing homes. The last datapoint we assessed in this area is the number of patients that ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home. This figure was below average.

The next area we scored was nursing. In this category, we gave this nursing home a decent grade of B-. This was this facility's worst area. In calculating our nursing ratings, we analyze both staffing levels and the skill levels of those nurses. This facility provided just 3.1 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This figure is significantly below average. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this facility performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is generally an indicator that a facility has sufficient quality controls in place. Some falls can be avoided if a facility supplies enough nurses aids to assist its residents.