Merriman House

In addition to faring well overall, this nursing home also earned nearly flawless government inspections. As a result, it earned one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. Our inspection ratings weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this category typically have few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G through L. This means CMS did not consider 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.

This nursing home also was given an A+ for its long-term care grade. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in this category it is a good sign for resident care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses and aids. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is far higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. In determining a facility's nursing score, we consider the quantity of hours nurses spend with patients and the skill levels of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can generally be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

In the final category, we gave this facility an A+ for our short-term care score. This rounded out a first-rate report card. In crafting our short-term care scores, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to devise a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final statistic we looked at in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.