The Marshes of Skidaway Island

On top of being a first rate facility overall, this facility also excelled in the area of inspections, where it received an A+. Few facilities performed as well in this category. Inspection ratings are based on items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this category typically have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. 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.

One of the other reasons we graded this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A. There are a variety of factors within this area. Most of the factors relate to staffing levels. This nursing home provides 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility 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 often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Turning the page to our next area, this nursing home received an excellent long-term care grade. In fact, it received a score of A in that category. When facilities receive a grade in this range in long-term care it typically means it's well-staffed and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is far higher than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

In the final category we analyzed, this nursing home was awarded a very favorable grade of A in our short-term care category. With this grade, the facility finished off a straight A report card. Our short-term care ratings are based on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a vast spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, in addition to other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.