Livingston Manor Care Center

The primary reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it earned an elite inspection score. Its inspection score was far superior to its overall score. In the inspections category, we gave this facility an A-. Perhaps the most significant factor we consider in determining our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Places with better grades in this area most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. While this nursing home had some deficiencies on its report, none of them were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. A few minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This nursing home's long-term care grade turns out to be one of its higher scores. The facility was given a grade of B- in this area. In calculating our long-term care ratings, we look at the assistance with daily living received by the facility's residents. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 99.30556 percent of its patients. This place also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This nursing home's next best area is short-term care. We awarded it a grade of C in this area. This is basically a middle of the pack score in this category. Our short-term care scores are based in part on the facility's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This means a wide range of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Unfortunately, this facility was below average in terms of its number of registered nurse and physical therapy hours provided to its patients based on the metrics we assessed. The important question is whether this adversely impacted quality of care. Lastly, we assessed the number of patients that were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was well below average.

Switching gears to the fourth area, this facility was given a grade of C for nursing, which is a decent grade. There are several criteria within this area. Many of the criteria are tied to staffing levels. This place averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, which is a very low figure. Finally, we also considered some quality-based measures in this category. While this nursing home did not rank well in terms of its nursing hours, it fared better in some of the quality measures we looked at. In terms of the percentage of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, this facility performed better than the national average. This is usually an indicator that a facility has quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented with better nursing care.