Pasadena Care Center

Although we didn't give this place a good overall score, we actually gave it a relatively strong grade in the area of inspections, where it earned a B+. Arguably the most significant factor we look at in determining our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. It is typically best to avoid nursing homes that have a long list of deficiencies. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.

This nursing home's next highest area turned out to be its short-term care score, where it was given a B-. Our short-term care scores are meaningful for people in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually requires more highly-skilled nursing. This means a wide range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. In this place's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than the average facility. The hope is always that this does not adversely impact the quality of care. The last statistic we assessed in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is actually below average.

Turning to the area of nursing care, this facility received a grade of just D in this category. We looked at the licensure of nurses working for the facility, in addition to the number of hours those nurses worked with patients, in calculating our rating in this area. This facility offered a meager 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in computing our nursing ratings. This place fared well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.

The final category we scored was long-term care, where this facility received a poor grade in this category as well. Unfortunately, we gave it a lowly F for this area, which is definitely very concerning. For prospective patients looking for a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care is an important category. After assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination data. We were optimistic to find that this nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Surprisingly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.