Juniper Village - the Spearly Center

While we gave this place a weak overall rating, we actually gave it a somewhat respectable grade in the category of inspections, where we gave it a B-. This was quite a bit better than its other category grades. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. It doesn't appear that we were able to find deficiency counts for this nursing home. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing score. Nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we gave this nursing home an B-. Our nursing grade assesses the facility's level of nurse staffing. We consider both the levels of licensure of those nurses and the number of hours spent with residents. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility excelled in some of the quality measures we looked at. In fact, it performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

This facility was given its next highest category score in the category of short-term care. We gave this facility a grade of B- in this area, which is a decent score. Short-term care scores are important for residents in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. In this nursing home's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than the typical facility. The hope is always that this does not adversely affect the quality of care. The final item we looked at in this category is the number of residents that eventually returned home from the facility. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.

Switching gears to the fourth area, this nursing home received an acceptable long-term care grade of C. If you are seeking services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each nursing home's long-term care scores. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Frankly, we were a bit bothered by the fact that this nursing home provided the vaccine to only 64.888885 percent of its patients. On a more positive note, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.