The Village at Summerville

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ short-term care grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. Short-term care scores are critical for patients requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. We were pleased to find that this nursing home employs both registered nurses and physical therapists. The same can't be said for all nursing homes. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 6.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Our nursing grade is mostly associated with the facility's nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Another impressive feature of this facility is its inspection grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A. These inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. 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.

In our last category, this facility also was awarded an impressive long-term care grade, with a grade of A. This rounded out a straight A profile. Long-term care ratings in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. Once we assessed the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. Unfortunately, it does not appear that this nursing home provided information on its vaccination levels. Clearly, this facility 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 number.