North Starr Postacute Care

In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A. We looked at the licensure of nurses employed by the facility, in addition to the quantity of hours the nurses worked with patients, in determining our grade in this area. This nursing home provides 0 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a protocol of turning patients more frequently.

Adding to this facility's impressive resume, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. Inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better scores in this category generally have few of these severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Moving on our next category, this nursing home was awarded a strong long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A in that area. Facilities that excel in long-term care tend to provide residents with more supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. After assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

In the final category, this nursing home also was awarded a very strong short-term care grade, with an A-. This completed an elite report card. Short-term care scores are important for people seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a vast range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Unfortunately, it does not look like this nursing home submitted data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents that who were able to eventually return home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.