Hirest Firethorn

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. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Places with better scores in this category most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. While this place had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' scale. A few minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

Adding to its strong profile, this facility also was given a strong short-term care score, with a score of A-. Our short-term care ratings are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a broad scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. It doesn't look like this nursing home submitted data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The final statistic we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 6.9 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

Adding to its profile, this facility also earned a grade of B+ for its nursing rating. This is a well above average score in this category. We weighed the skill-level of nurses working for the facility, in addition to the quantity of time those nurses were with patients, in calculating our score in this category. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed 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 facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a protocol of turning a resident more often.

The final category we assessed turned out to be this nursing home's weakest category. Nevertheless, even in its worst category we still gave it a decent grade of B- in long-term care. Our long-term care scores are important for residents requiring personal care. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is higher than the majority of nursing homes. Finally, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.