Mesquite Tree Nursing Center

Although we didn't grade this facility favorably overall, we actually gave it an excellent score in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. Inspection ratings are tied to several datapoints located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key thing to look for on these inspections. Most importantly, you should avoid nursing homes that have severe deficiencies associated with endangerment of patients. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

This facility's next highest category was long-term care. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a C. In determining these long-term care scores, we look at the facility's ability to maintain its permanent residents' health and quality of life. One of the statistics we considered after nursing hours is vaccinations. Fortunately, this facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its patients. This place also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Turning to the category of short-term care, this nursing home received a grade of just D in that category. In calculating these short-term care scores, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The objective is to create a tool for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Given its poor score in this area, we were not surprised to discover this nursing home provides substantially fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most nursing homes. Lastly, we assessed the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. This definitely wasn't a strength for this nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most nursing homes, about half of their patients are able to return home so this is well below average.

The next area we assessed is nursing, which proved to be this nursing home's least impressive category. We gave this facility a grade of D in this category. In calculating a nursing home's nursing grade, we consider the number of hours nurses commit to patients as well as the level of licensure of the nurses. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these statistics to be indicators of the quality of nursing care.