La Habra Convalescent Hospital

In addition to performing well in its overall score, this facility received an excellent long-term care grade. We gave it an impressive grade of A in that area. When nursing homes receive this kind of grade in this category it is usually a good sign for patient care and suggests that the place is well-staffed with nurses and aids. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is significantly higher than the majority of nursing homes. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This nursing home also received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, this turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A. Our nursing score is primarily associated with a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

This nursing home also excelled in the category of inspections, where it received a grade of B+. Few facilities performed better in this area. Our inspection scores are tied to many datapoints located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that score well in this area tend to have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. While this facility had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

The fourth category we graded was short-term care, where this facility was given a grade of B+. This topped off a very impressive profile. Very few facilities received a B+ or better in every category. Our short-term care ratings are believed to be most meaningful for those needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically utilizes higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes not merely nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents that returned home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.