Oakland Heights

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection ratings. One key factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these can be relatively minor. This facility was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This means that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies to be an immediate risk to patient safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in this industry.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Our nursing score is primarily based on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a system of turning patients even once per day.

This nursing home also was given a strong long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care typically provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. Once we assessed the volume of nursing care, we then looked at the facility's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is often a life threatening health condition for nursing home residents so we prefer when a nursing home does not leave its residents vulnerable. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

The last area we looked at is short-term care, in which this nursing home received a grade of B. Believe it or not, this is this facility's worst category. A facility is doing something right when it's poorest grade still rates higher than most other facilities. In determining these short-term care scores, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our objective is to formulate a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.