Pinnacle Health and Rehab

In addition to receiving a strong overall grade, this facility also received an A+ inspection rating. This is based on its recent government inspections. An A+ in this area is one of the highest complements we can pay to a nursing home. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection grades. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some are relatively insignificant. Although this facility had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to alert you to the fact that this facility was awarded an elite grade of A- in our short-term care area. Our short-term care scores are probably most critical for folks in need of rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically requires higher levels of highly-skilled nursing. This includes not merely nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. This nursing home elevated its grade in this category by offering more care from registered nurses to its residents than the average facility. The final item we assessed in this area is the number of residents who eventually returned home from the nursing home. We found that it fared better than most facilities in this area with 54.5 percent of its patients returning home.

This nursing home also received a strong long-term care score. In fact, we awarded it an above average score of B+ in this category. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 96.2406 percent of its residents, which is more than the average nursing home. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.66 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The last area we looked at is nursing, in which this facility was given a grade of B. Believe it or not, this proved to be this nursing home's weakest category. A facility is doing something right when it's weakest grade still is superior to most other facilities. Nursing scores are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This particular facility provided 3.9 hours of nursing care per patient per day. Roughly one quarter of that care was provided by registered nurses, which are highly skilled nurses. Both of these statistics exceed the national average. Finally, we also looked at nursing quality measures in determining our nursing ratings. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these areas as predictive measures of the caliber of nursing care being provided, since better care tends to reduce these problems.