Mount Vernon Health Care Center

While we did not rate this nursing home well overall, we want to acknowledge it received a decent grade of B- in the area of nursing. The nursing grade assesses a handful of datapoints, but the primary one is the quantity of nurse hours spent with patients. This place provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is a lower figure than we were hoping for. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics. While this nursing home got docked a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed well in this subcategory. This can be an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a patient more often.

This facility was awarded its next best category score in the area of short-term care. We awarded this facility a grade of B- in this category, which is a decent score. Our short-term care scores are based on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a vast range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other variations of therapy. We found that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. In fact, it supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. It is important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

The third category we looked at was long-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a solid grade of B-. Long-term care grades are often used to grade a nursing home's performance as a traditional nursing home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services provided by a skilled nursing facility. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 93.20988 percent of its residents. This is a few points lower than we expected but still a decent figure. Nevertheless, this place was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The last category we assessed is inspections. The facility received a grade of C in this category. Our inspection grades weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. This facility was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were category G through L deficiencies. This indicates it avoided the more significant categories of deficiencies. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.