The Village at Summerville

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. Inspection scores account for several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better scores in this category typically have few of these severe deficiencies. 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.

Another reason we assessed this facility so highly is that it was given an A+ short-term care grade. This is simply as dominant as it gets in this category. Our short-term care scores are likely most meaningful for those requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means not merely nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that 7.1 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

Adding to its strong resume, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A. Our nursing score looks at the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We weigh both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the amount of time spent with residents. This facility provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well when it comes to avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

In the last category, this facility also was given a first-rate long-term care rating, with a grade of A. This finished off a first-rate profile. In a long-term care environment, the facility's primary goal is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. One of the factors we considered on top of nurse's aid hours was vaccines. It does not look like this nursing home submitted information about vaccinations. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.