Memorial Gables

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility earned even higher grades in long-term care. It received one of our highest scores in that area with a grade of A. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically provide residents with better supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. In addition to considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia is too frequently a life or death health condition for nursing home patients so we prefer when a facility doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

In addition, this facility also earned top notch inspections in recent years. We gave them one of our better grades in that area, with a grade of A. Inspection scores weigh a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better scores in this area tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. This place received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This means that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent risk to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Turning to another strength for this facility, we awarded them one of our more favorable grades in our short-term care category as well, with a B+. In computing our short-term care ratings, we analyze a facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly trained professionals. This score is more often than not a solid assessment of a facility's rehabilitation services. We were not able to find registered nurse or physical therapy staffing data for this facility. The final item we considered in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 7 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

The final category we analyzed turned out to be this nursing home's worst category. However, even in its worst category we still gave it an acceptable grade of B- for our nursing category. The nursing grade analyzes a handful of subcategories, however, the primary consideration is the number of nurse hours spent with patients. This particular nursing home provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This figure is significantly below average. Finally, nursing scores also factor in quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours per resident, this nursing home actually performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has quality controls in place. Many falls can be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses to assist its patients.