Life Care Center of Sierra Vista

On top of performing well overall, this nursing home earned a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it earned one of our best scores in that area with an A+. Arguably the most important factor we look at in determining our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. 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.

On the list of its many dominant grades, this facility was given an excellent short-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a score of A- in that category. Our short-term care ratings are critical for prospective residents needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a vast spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. We weren't able to find information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The final datapoint we considered in this area is the number of patients that returned home from the nursing home. We found that 6.1 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. In calculating our nursing ratings, we factor in both nursing hours and the training levels of those nurses. This nursing home averages 0.3 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 nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Switching gears to the fourth area, this facility received a highly favorable long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B+ in that category, topping off one of our more favorable report cards. When nursing homes receive this type of score in this category it is typically a good sign for resident care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses and aids. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 98.79518 percent of its residents, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia can be a dangerous condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a facility does not leave its residents vulnerable. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.