Mcdowell Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with higher scores in this category typically dodged the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. While this facility had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home performed well in our nursing category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- for that category, which is one of our highest scores. Our nursing rating assesses several subcategories, most of which are based on levels of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this place 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a protocol of turning a resident more frequently.

In addition, this nursing home also received favorable long-term care scores this year. Indeed, we awarded it one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. Nursing homes that receive this type of score in long-term care tend to provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure residents are well cared for. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 97.47634 percent of its residents, which is far higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The next category we scored was nursing, turned out to be this nursing home's worst area. We gave this facility a D in that area. This is one of the few dings in an otherwise strong profile. In determining these short-term care ratings, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to formulate a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different nursing homes. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the measures we assessed. The final item we assessed in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 2.8 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these poor metrics doomed this facility's short-term care grade.