Pennswood Village

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this category generally have very few of these severe deficiencies. This place received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to cause an imminent threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Another reason we rated this nursing home so highly is that it received an A+ nursing grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. Our nursing grade is mostly based on a nursing home's nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility Pennsylvania in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of moving a patient more often.

Compounding its high-end assessment, this facility also was awarded an excellent long-term care score, with a score of A. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically provide residents with better supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is far higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The final area we graded is short-term care, where this facility received an A. This finished off a very strong report card. Very few nursing homes earned an A- or higher in every single category. Short-term care scores are crucial for patients needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes a vast range of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 4.5 percent of this facility's patients returned home.