Hessmer Nursing Home

On top of receiving a strong overall grade, this facility also received an elite long-term care score. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that area, with an impressive grade of A+. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. Once we assessed the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is much higher than most nursing homes. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.03 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility also performed well in our inspection category, which is based on the facility's inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A+ for that category, which is one of our top grades. Our inspection scores are based on several items found on the a nursing home's government inspections. Nursing homes that score well in this category tend to have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these facilities generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. We were not able to find deficiency counts for this nursing home. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility's next best category was its nursing grade, where it received a grade of C. While this didn't quite match its scores in some of the categories discussed above, this is still a decent score. Nursing ratings are heavily correlated with nurse staffing levels. This particular facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This figure is significantly below the national average. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this place surprisingly fared better in some of the quality measures we assessed. It scored well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.

This facility's worst area was short-term care, which is the final category we analyzed. We gave it an abysmal F for this category. In spite of several favorable grades in other categories, this score is nevertheless a bit concerning so we felt obligated to draw your attention to it. In our short-term care score, we endeavor to craft a sound measure for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we look at the facility's level of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. In this nursing home's case, we found that it provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that just 3.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.