Mesa Springs Healthcare Center

On top of being a quality nursing home overall, this nursing home really excelled in our inspections category, where it received an A. Few nursing homes performed better in that category. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating our inspection grades. One of those factors is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being quite insignificant. Although this facility had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility fared well in the area of long-term care. Indeed, we awarded it a grade of A- for that area, which is one of our most favorable scores. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. One of the statistics we considered after nursing hours was vaccinations. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccination is a reliable method to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations for the senior population. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to our third category, this facility also earned a grade of B+ for its short-term care rating. This is a well above average score in this category. Our short-term care ratings are likely most meaningful for individuals in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically utilizes additional highly-skilled nursing. This includes not just nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.3 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

The final category we graded is nursing, in which this facility was given a C. This actually proved to be this facility's worst category. This is still not a terrible score. Our nursing grade analyzes a handful of components, most of which are tied to nursing hours. This nursing home provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a somewhat uninspiring figure as it is well below average. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based metrics, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this nursing home performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is often a reliable indicator that a facility has quality controls in place. Some falls could be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses to assist its patients.