Marsh's Edge

We also wanted to emphasize that this facility has received near flawless inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. These inspection scores take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can find more information about each of these factors by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This nursing home was hit with 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

One of the other reasons we graded this nursing home so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing score. In fact, nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we gave this facility an A+. The nursing rating analyzes a handful of factors, but the most important consideration is the level of nurse hours spent with patients. This nursing home provides 0.9 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a system of turning patients more often.

The third category we assessed is long-term care. This facility performed remarkably in our long-term care category also. We gave them a dominant score of A+ in this category. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. After considering the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is much higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The final area we analyzed was short-term care, where this nursing home was given an A. This topped off an elite profile. Very few facilities received an A- or better in all four categories. Short-term care scores are vital for individuals needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional skilled nursing. This means a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we considered in this category is the number of residents who returned home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.