Maria Regina Residence

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection ratings. One of those factors is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some of these end up being quite minor. 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 facility really excelled in the area of long-term care, where we gave it a grade of A-. Not many nursing homes performed better in this category. Long-term care grades in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. After considering the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents healthy. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility also was given a strong short-term care grade. Indeed, we gave it an above average score of B+ in this category. Our short-term care ratings are meaningful for individuals needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. This includes a broad scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last metric we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that 5.5 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

The next area we assessed is nursing. This facility received a favorable nursing grade this year, with a grade of C. While this was not quite as dominant as some of its other grades, this is still a respectable rating for that category. In calculating a nursing home's nursing grade, we weigh the number of hours nurses are with residents as well as the levels of training of the nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, which is not an impressive total. Finally, we like to look at quality-based statistics, such as the percent of residents who sustained pressure ulcers and major falls. Sometimes these statistics are indicators of the quality of nursing care.