Morning Sun Care Center

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Inspection scores weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this area usually have very few severe deficiencies. While this place had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were severe based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its impressive resume, this nursing home also excelled in our nursing category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category. We scrutinized the qualifications of nurses employed by the facility, in addition to the quantity of time those nurses worked with patients, in computing our grade in this category. 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 nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can many times be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The third area we analyzed was long-term care. Adding to its high-end profile, this nursing home also excelled in this category. In fact, it received a of A for that category. For prospective patients seeking a permanent residence rather than skilled nursing, long-term care is an important category. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 83.962265 percent of its residents. This is a few points below what we were hoping for but still a respectable figure. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The final category we rated is short-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a grade of A-. This topped off a very strong profile. Few nursing homes earned an A- or higher in in each area we assessed. Our short-term care grades are probably more important for folks requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates more skilled nursing services. This means not just nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.