Indian River Center

Although we didn't give this place a good overall score, we actually gave it a relatively strong grade in the area of inspections, where it received a B. Inspection ratings account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. You generally want to avoid facilities with too many deficiencies flagged. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

The second most favorable category we gave this nursing home in any area came in the area of short-term care, where we awarded it a C. With our short-term care score, we seek to forge a sound measure for rehabilitation. In this process, we analyze the nursing home's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. This nursing home employs both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities employ these skilled professionals. The last metric we looked at in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. It was respectable in this metric with 47.6 percent of its patients returning home.

This nursing home actually received a decent grade in the area of nursing as well. We awarded it a grade of C for that category, which is not a bad score. Nursing scores are mostly associated with a facility's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 2.6 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home actually performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is typically a reliable indicator that a place has quality controls in place. Many falls can be avoided if a nursing home provides enough nurses to assist its patients.

The final area we analyzed was long-term care, which is this facility's least impressive category. We awarded this facility a grade of D in this area. For patients seeking a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are very important. One of the data points we considered in addition to nurse's aid hours is vaccines. Fortunately, this nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccine to 96.20253 percent of its residents. To our surprise, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.