Pacifica Nursing and Rehab Center

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Arguably the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places with better grades in this category typically dodged the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. 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.

An additional reason we assessed this nursing home so favorably is that it received an A+ short-term care score. This is simply as dominant as it gets in this area. Our short-term care scores are based in part on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled highly skilled professionals. This means a vast scope of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other forms of therapy. This place is substantially above average in terms of its quantity of both registered nurse and physical therapy hours available to its patients. It provided about one and a half times as much care per resident from both of these groups of skilled professionals than a typical facility provided. The final item we looked at in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it performed as well as just about any nursing home in California in this area with 68.5 percent of its patients returning home. Unfortunately, at most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-term residents are able to return home.

The third area we analyzed was long-term care. Adding to its first-rate profile, this facility also excelled in that category. In fact, we gave it a of A in that area. Nursing homes that receive this kind of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure residents are well cared for. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate information about this nursing home's vaccination rates. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The last category we scored was nursing, where this nursing home was given an A. This topped off a very strong report card. Few facilities earned an A- or better in all four categories. There are a number of factors within this category. Many of the subcategories relate to the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This facility boasts a really impressive 5.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day, of which a significant percentage was provided by registered nurses. This is one of the most highly trained levels of nurses. This is one of the higher totals of nursing hours we found at any facility. On top of providing high levels of nursing care, this facility also excelled in the quality measures we assessed. By way of illustration, it performed as well as any facility in California when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We view these data points as good measures of the quality of nursing care provided.