Life Care Center of North Glendale

In addition to earning a strong overall grade, this facility also excelled in our inspections category, which is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in that category. Our inspection grades weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this area usually have very few of these severe deficiencies. 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. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

We also want to alert you to the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our short-term care area. Short-term care grades are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a vast range of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final metric we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

The next category we analyzed is long-term care. This facility was given an above average long-term care grade, with a grade of B in this area. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. In addition to considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 99.37888 percent of its residents, which is very impressive. Pneumonia sadly is often a deadly illness for nursing home patients so we like it when a nursing home doesn't leave its residents vulnerable. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The last area we graded was nursing, where this nursing home was given a B. This actually turned out to be this nursing home's worst category. A facility could be doing a lot worse when it's lowest grade still outperforms most facilities. Our nursing score assesses quite a few data points, but the main one is the quantity of nurse hours per patient per week. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also factored a few quality-based metrics into our nursing grades. This facility was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.