Langdon Place of Dover

In addition to being a first rate nursing home overall, this nursing home also performed well in our inspections category, where it earned a grade of A+. Very few nursing homes fared this well in this category. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining our inspection grades. One critical factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some of these end up being quite insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This first-rate nursing home also excelled in the area of short-term care, where we gave it a score of A+. Very few facilities performed better in this category. In the category of short-term care, we strive to assess measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final statistic we looked at in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 6 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

This facility also was dominant in the category of long-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A. Only a select group of nursing homes performed better in this area. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. On top of considering the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents healthy. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Turning to the next area, this nursing home was awarded a very strong nursing grade. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A in this category, rounding out a straight A profile. The nursing rating is based on quite a few factors, but the main consideration is the quantity of nurse hours spent with patients. This particular nursing home provided 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.