Point Loma Post Acute Center

While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable inspection report this year. As a result, it received a decent grade in that category with a score of B-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating these inspection scores. One of those factors is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being relatively minor. This place received 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This indicates that the inspectors didn't deem any of these deficiencies an immediate threat to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.

Surprisingly, we awarded this facility a B- for its long-term care score, which is not a bad grade. In forming our long-term care ratings, we analyze the nursing home's personal care services. Once we assessed the quantity of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination record. We were pleased to learn that this nursing home vaccinates 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. This place also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Remarkably, we awarded this nursing home a grade of C for our nursing rating, which isn't a bad grade. There are a variety of datapoints included in this area. Most of these criteria relate to the quantity of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Lastly, despite not having the highest total nursing hours per resident, this facility actually performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is usually a reliable indicator that a facility has sufficient quality controls in place.

The final category we rated is short-term care, where this nursing home was given a poor grade in this category as well. Sadly, it received an F for this category, which is obviously very concerning. Our short-term care grades are believed to be more meaningful for patients needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional highly-skilled nursing services. This includes not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. With a grade in this range for this category, we were not stunned to learn that this place was well below average in the two key staffing metrics we focus on. In fact, it offered significantly fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per patient than most other nursing homes. The final metric we considered in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 4.3 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these poor metrics doomed this nursing home's short-term care grade.