Maryland Gardens Care Center

To pair with a strong overall score, we awarded this nursing home an A for our inspections rating. Perhaps the most significant factor we consider in determining our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities with higher grades in this area most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. While this place had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This tells you that CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among its many impressive grades, this facility received an excellent nursing grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in that category. Nursing ratings are largely based on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.3 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 nursing home the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a protocol of turning patients even once per day.

This facility also performed well in the category of long-term care, where it received a score of A. Only a select group of facilities performed better in this area. Nursing homes that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure patients are well cared for. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

In our final area, we awarded this facility a grade of A for our short-term care score. This wrapped up an elite report card. Our short-term care ratings are based in part on the facility's quantity of skilled nursing services. This includes a vast range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we assessed in this category is the number of residents who ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.